January 19, 2012 - Pre-Surgical Testing at NYU

On Thursday, January 19th we had Madison's pre-surgical testing at NYU.  We started out the day with a tour of the pediatric floor.  We viewed a room that Madison will sleep in - but instead of a hospital bed, they'll be placing her in a transportable crib with steel bars.  Having never seen anything like this before, emotions definitely started to kick in.  It was difficult to ask many questions because we were concentrating on holding back tears. There will be a chair in the room next to her (which folds out into a bed) so 1 parent can sleepover.  We're hoping to get a room by ourselves, to get more chairs so that mommy and daddy can be by Madison's side.   However, there is a strong possibility we'll need to share a room with another patient/family.  An interesting note is that they try to place patients together by age or surgery type, but it's theoretically possible for Madison to share a room with a teenager.  After surgery, Madison will probably first go to a recovery room, before getting situated in her overnight room.  The recovery room has more nurse coverage and is a more optimal setting for her to awake from the anesthesia. We also viewed the cafe and the lounge, but we don't plan on leaving her side once she gets out of surgery.

After the tour, we headed to another floor for testing/meetings.  First, we met with a nurse that works closely with Dr. Roland (the surgeon).  She gave us a high overview of the surgery, timelines, etc.  She told us that we will receive a phone call on Tuesday night confirming everything, as well as providing us the exact start time of the surgery.  Because she's the youngest patient of the day, Madison will most likely be scheduled for the first case Wednesday morning, which will be 8:30am.

Next up, we met some more nurses.  These nurses took her height, weight and head circumference.  In addition, they needed to get a urine sample.  Luckily, I placed cotton balls in her diaper after her last feed and the nurses were able to squeeze the cotton balls and get enough of a sample.  (She actually peed right after this, all over the table/chair, but I didn't care much, as I did check the box "Can't Control Bowel Movements" on her paperwork..ha)  Finally, they drew blood out of her heel, and besides a quick yelp - all was okay.

The last meeting was with the anesthesiologist.  We went over what they will be doing to her - gas/anesthesia/breathing tube.  And then we discussed her feeding schedule for the days and hours up to her surgery.  She won't be able to have any breast milk 4 hours prior to her arrival time, but is allowed juice/water 2 hours prior.  Considering she has never had juice or water before, not sure how much this will help.  Maybe we will to a test run this weekend.

Everyone we met with was extremely nice.  Plus, everyone commented how cute Madison was... which is always a nice compliment :)  We continue to hope and pray that our adorable girl comes through like a champion.  After many months of waiting for this day to finally come, we can not believe that it is less than a week away.  Moments of excitement and anxiety are floating through our minds... looking forward to accomplishing yet another important milestone to bring sounds to our baby Madison.