Natalie's procedure

Natalie had a small cyst removed from her knee yesterday, and everything went really well!

We were worried about the no food/drink beforehand, but she did fine.  We let Natalie sleep in until the last minute before we needed to leave for the hospital.  We got her up, slapped some clothes on her, and strapped her in the van.  She didn't even have time to think about breakfast!  She did ask for a drink a couple of times, but we reminded her that she couldn't until afterwards, and she was OK.

Things went very smoothly in the admission and pre-op area.  We were impressed at how everything was totally geared for her age group.  I'd never been to the Children's Hospital before, and it was definitely a great place to have a procedure done.  They kept Natalie busy and preoccupied all the way up until the time they wheeled her into the OR and pointed us to the waiting room.

Colin and I sat watching TV and reading magazines, chatting a bit, but mostly just relaxing.  It was barely half an hour before the doctor came in to tell us they were all done!  He said the cyst was benign, but they will still look at it under a microscope.  He told us that Natalie had 3 stitches and gave us a few instructions on care of her wound.  Then he told us that they'd send someone to fetch us for the recovery room in just a moment, and off he went!

Not 5 minutes after that, someone came to take us to the recovery area.  This was probably the worst part of the day -- Natalie was just waking up from the anesthesia and was confused and angry.  It took us a while to calm her down, but eventually she did, and she was thrilled that they let her eat not one, not two, but FOUR popsicles in recovery!  The nurses were happy that she was acting fairly normal and keeping everything down.  It was nice that the anesthesia didn't make her sick to her stomach like it does to some people.  After monitoring her for a while, we were cleared to go home!  We got Natalie dressed again, and the nurse gave us a bag of supplies to take home for changing her bandages.  We were home before lunch.

Natalie was still tired and took a good afternoon nap, then slept well last night.  We're just so proud of how relaxed she was at the hospital, and how well she's done with everything.  What a big girl!!!

We love you, Natalie!!!