G-tube surgery is today.

A dear friend, who's husband runs a company which produces snack products, offered to help me give the nurses a little treat for Nurses Day yesterday. Who would have known, right? Besides seeing a small flyer up somewhere in the hospital, another friend had reminded me via email that this important day was upon us.

While I was taking Lila to preschool my breaks were squeaking and because my miles were way past the sticker in my window, I thought it best to bring my car in in the morning. Of course as I was leaving it, the service guy alerted me the cost for the basic service, let alone if it needed breaks, which it did in the front. Although I love this van, it's really a ridiculously expensive vehicle to maintain and major & minor parts seem to go out regularly... and I don't even have 60k on this thing! The girl in line behind me at the dealership and I commiserated that we should have bought foreign. It ended up being so expensive it just blows Mike & I away every time!

Anyway, my friend was nice enough to pick me up at the dealer to head up to the hospital with her big bag of snacks ready to go, and a hand made card ready to for my message! What an angel, right? I am surrounded by them it's clear. There are so many other friend's stepping in to pick up where I'm unable to where Ian and Lila are concerned. Lila has We are all so fortunate to have our friends and family (or our "village" as my friend put it ;-) She also stayed for a few hours to hold him while I pumped, and went off to get my hair and make-up done. What was that you say? Yes, I actually had strangers apply make-up and curl my hair yesterday. It was a special thing for Mother's Day a group called Flashes of Hope does. They spruced us Mom's up and did a short photo shoot with our kids. So sweet! I thought it might be good for Ian to at least have one photo of us together where I don't look like I just rolled out of bed ;-)

On with the day. Next was a moment to wolf down some food, and then Mike met me to head up for the meetings with Pulmonology, Cardiology & the doctor whom will place the G-tube. Overall, there was nothing new except learning more about the G-tube surgery and hearing from the Pulmonologist that he'd like to keep him on oxygen, a fact that I'd heard of the day before from him (and I totally agreed with). All of his "parts" were working ok but would still need to be medicated and followed when we left but no one seemed super concerned with the state of them right now, which is a good thing. The more concerning meeting is today with Neurology. Even though I've had weeks to process it, I'll definitely need a tissue box for that one.

The really good thing about all these meetings, and his scheduled surgery, meant that we were also talking about follow-ups... after we went home, which was also being discussed as days, rather than weeks. Very exciting! Of course we have a lot of "training" and prep to do before hand, but it's the light we are finally nearing towards the end of the tunnel.

The surgery to place the G-tube is now scheduled for this morning. While this is something they do often, I'm still very nervous. It was the guy from anesthesia who came by to get the consent signed and explain the risks, especially for patients who have been so sick like our little Ian.

I was going to wing it with Lila at the hospital tomorrow but now am going solo to make sure I'm there before and during the surgery. I'll just have to pick her up before her appointment with Dr. Pornchi (the Pulmonologist who also takes care of Ian) in the afternoon. Directly after this, I've coordinated with another fabulous friend in Westwood to drop her there in order to get back for the neurology meeting. So sad having to bring her here and there, but we are so lucky we have so many friends who love her and are willing to hang with her.