Surgery

7:30 am: OR nurses come to collect us to take us to the PACU--not yet certain what that stands for. B is excited to go for an elevator ride and asks to push the buttons.
7:46 am: Dr Cho, our surgeon, comes over to talk with us. Two anathesologists join her to answer our questions.
7:52 am: Nurses inquire which one of us wants to go in. :ubby is braver than I--or at the very least is better at masking it in front of B-- and scrubs up. They are the last father and child team to go through the swinging doors. I am left alone in the PACU with the nurses. They fold up the screen walls, stack the chairs and smile encouragingly at me.
8:17 am: B just went into surgery for a nephrectomy (sp?). The CT scan on Friday revealed that the tumour is contained within the right kidney (and thank God has not spread anywhere else), so she has gone under the knife to remove the whole kidney, since the tumour is already infected 50 to 70 percent of the kidney.Felt very strange to sign over the rights to remove one of my daughter's bodyparts. Doesn't even belong to me and here I am signing off on it. Anyways, the surgery is scheduled for six hours, so we are looking at a long day ahead of us.
We were fortunate enough to get a pass to go home for the weekend, so B had a great couple of days swimming with cousins, eating watermelon with her grandparents, spending Father's Day at home and sleeping in her own bed. We came back to CHEO last night to prepare for today. B is growing wise to the nurses and IV techs, but has otherwise remained her superstar self. Amazing how powerful princess stickers can be. Hubby wonderas what the hospital's sticker budget must be. Not surprising of him!
Now we must wait to hear how the surgery is going and it is just 8:58 am....

Ps: please excuse my unedited messages. Am typing this on Hubby's blackberry and I have yet to develop any sort of texting skills.