Second Laser

Today was the second Laser Surgery for Emberly's arm.  I must say this one was much more of a hassle than the first.  I was told someone would call to schedule it - I ended up calling just to make sure I could fit it in my schedule.  I was told about the anesthesia rules - then after telling them Emberly wouldn't be doing anesthesia and them taking forever to double-check I was told I could feed her as normal because there would be no anesthesia.  

Exactly one week before the surgery I received a phone call to inform me of the upcoming event - even though we'd already done this before.  I was told about the anesthesia procedures again.  And again explained that she would not be having anesthesia.  The nurse said to follow the guidelines in case they needed to at some point during the surgery.  

The surgery is only 10 minutes long - they take a laser shoot it at her arm and call it a day - seriously do you really think there are going to be complications which require general anesthesia for my child??  Whatever... I decided it best to let it go and just follow the guidelines just in case.  

That afternoon I received a packet of papers which informed me I need to make a pre-operation appointment with the pediatrician within a week of the surgery - wow that's great thanks for sending that out ahead of time so I could easily schedule that into my work schedule.  AH!  

We took her in for the appointment and saw the same doctor who recommended the plastic surgeon.  

As I thumbed threw the other papers which were sent to us I discovered more on general anesthesia.  I called the office to inquire further and explained how the doctor said he wouldn't be using it this time.  They said maybe it was a precaution and I should follow the guidelines just it case. 

So again I start another hard day not able to hold my child because she'll want to eat and I'm not allowed.  We arrived at the hospital and had an insane time finding a parking spot.  We parked in the hospital parking and not Gillette's because we couldn't find a spot - we figured we wouldn't be long anyway so what's the difference.  The staff were all very nice again this round. We changed her into the hospital gown...the nurse came in and talked to us...the doctor came in and said we didn't need to have it on her - so we took it off.  He said it should only take about 10 mins then she'd be back and we could go.  The nurse came back in and said we were doing topical anesthesia - just a numbing cream on her arm - so they put it on.  She left and the anesthesia lady came - we were quite confused - had anyone communicated about anything going on today???  She told us she wasn't needed because Emberly had the cream on her arm.  So she left.  The nurse came back in (the same one who put the cream on) and said we were just waiting for anesthesia - I'm sorry, correct me if I'm wrong, but if you put the cream on shouldn't you know that we obviously aren't doing general anesthesia?  A very sweet lady came in and introduced herself - she would be holding my baby during the procedure and they were ready for her.  One last thing - how long is that cream supposed to be on before it works?  Oh hold on the nurses don't know - great why don't you go figure that out first.

When it was time and everything was in order they came and got Emberly.  They brought her back within 10 minutes - no bandage this time.  I asked the nurse (bad choice I know.  You'd think I'd have figured out that already) if I could feed her and how to keep her arm from sticking to everything.  She looked at me with a puzzled expression which only continued as I asked for a piece of gauze to put on her arm while I fed her.  I kid you not, 30 minutes later she came back with some gauze.  After about 10 minutes of listening to the unhappy child, Mark remembered they pulled some gauze out of the cabinet they have in the room...so we took some and I started feeding her.  Every question we asked required a 20 minute waiting period to get some sort of answer.  

Thankfully at the end of our visit we were told there would be no follow up or more surgery.  We wouldn't ever have to go back!!