Rollin' with it

After spending yesterday afternoon at University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics for my daughter's pre-op appointment, we get through the dental x-rays, we get through the long wait in the Oto area, and finally reach her surgeon's office. Whew! Almost done, right? Mmmm. He comes in, not looking his cheery self, and warns me, "I think I have a kidney stone. We may have to cancel tomorrow's surgery." Crap.

Moira was born with a cleft lip and palate and this surgery is another of her scheduled adventures--a piece of bone is taken from her hip and grafted into her hard palate. No plastic surgery this time, just "infrastructure work." I've been a little spun out over the post-operative safety measures: no major physical activity . . . for 3 months . . . she's 8.

So racking my brain for creative ways to keep her head from getting kicked or hit or slammed or elbowed or even bumped has occupied a big part of my brain. We've coached her on why no swimming and the little fish has taken it in stride. In fact, she's teaching me. About this time last week, I was talking with a friend, sharing my nervousness over the upcoming surgery and how Moira's just bouncing around, not a care in the world. He turns to me and says, "Looks like she could teach you some things." Whoa. Marion was so right! Moira has such a joy for life that she really doesn't get too tweaked over the little things (and just like the subtitle of that book "Don't Sweat the Small Stuff," it's all small things).

With this in mind, after the initial shock and instinctual mental, "Shit!," I assured the man that he needs to take care of himself. Dr. John Canady is amazing, truly loving what he does. We first met him when I was 36-weeks gestation and an ultrasound showed Moira's cleft. We could go with other surgeons closer to home, but why? He's the best and has known us since the beginning! So how could I be upset with him?

With instructions to operate 'as if,' we head home and at 7:30 last night, the phone rang. And I wasn't surprised, I told his resident I'd rather we delay the surgery and have him be healthy than continue as is and have him be sicker than hell. Moira? She just thought it was funny, "doctors get sick?!," and went back to her organ-playing.

So I guess that's how we roll.