Surgery Day

25/05/10

Well today is the BIG day of Raphaela's surgery. They took her off at 8am and it felt like my heart was being ripped out. I got out of the hospital and just cried as I didn't know when I was going to see my baby again. Our surgeon was Igor and he had told me approx 6 hours for the surgery and that he would call as soon as he had finished.

I took the VLine down to my sisters house to pick up their spare car so I had transport whilst at the hospital. Then I drove to our house to see the kids and Fred before I had to go back to the hospital. We still hadn't had a call by 4pm and I was starting to think the worse. We ended up calling the hospital numerous times but all they could tell us was that she was still in theatre. By 6pm, I was crying constantly although I was trying so hard not to for the kids sake. We still hadn't had a call by 7pm so I made the decision to drive back to the hospital so I was close by. It was an hour and a half drive and I have no idea how I made it in one piece as I was just a mess. I was nearly there when the phone finally rang just after 8pm and it was one of the doctors telling me to go the theatre reception so he could talk to me. I seriously thought he was going to tell me that my baby girl had died so when he told me she was still alive but the operation was a lot more complicated than first anticipated, I just broke down then and there. He told me that they still had a couple of hours work to do but I would be able to see her in ICU after that.

Finally at 11.30pm I was allowed to see Raphaela. She had come out of the operation on ECMO which I so didn't want her to do but at least she was still alive. I stood by her bedside crying and touching what little part I could for quite a while. I knew she was stable and in safe hands for the night so I finally went back to the house at about 12.30am and fell into a troubled sleep.