10. 7/29/2013 - Kate and Hattie look at fish before surgery.

We woke up bright and early to leave the house around 5 to get to Children's for surgery. Hattie would be getting procedures to remove the main tumor, take a bone marrow sample and get a port-a-cath implanted if the tumor appeared malignant. We planned on staying the night at the hospital but were given the option to go home if surgery went well and Hattie recovered from anesthesia quickly.

Hattie would be getting general anesthesia so she couldn't eat or drink anything after midnight. On the way to the hospital, we caught her trying to eat an old Cheerio she fished out of her carseat. We checked into the pre-op area and told the nurse that Hattie might have snuck a Cheerio on the way there. This nurse was not exactly the warm and fuzzy type and very coldly informed us that we would have to cancel surgery. We were about at our breaking point and the thought of delaying surgery and diagnosis caused us to lose it.

We checked in with the surgeon and anesthesia team and told them what happened and they were far more compassionate and understanding. The surgeon joked that he still eats Cheerios whenever he finds them lying around and, more importantly, the anesthesiologists felt comfortable proceeding with surgery.

We changed Hattie into a hospital johnny and I put on some paper scrubs to back with her into the operating room. I held her as the anesthesiologist placed a gas mask on her and slowly turned on the gas with a scent to cover it up. Hattie fought the mask so they turned it up to full blast and she fell asleep. I have her a kiss and met Kate back in pre-op and then we headed out to the waiting room.