It’s one of those days where Vancouver Children’s Hospital is dealing with “S”s or it just so happened that we were on every persons’ desk on the same day. Within an hour, I got 4 calls from the hospital where Gabrielle will have surgery.

All different departments coordinated together and rearranged schedules so that our surgery date is Sooner! We are going to Vancouver on October 30th. We will be doing pre-admission (which I call Pre-Op) on October 31st, Hallowe’en. Then on November 1st, Gabrielle will be put under for a CT Scan and chest x-ray. On November 3rd, she will have her open heart surgery.

I’m really glad that they moved it up because the anticipation is one of the hardest parts. I’m glad that we’ll be getting over and done with as soon as possible. Marc is done work at the mill so that will be nice not to lose that money. The inconvenient part is that Easter Seal house doesn’t have room for us until the date of her surgery, so we will have to pay a little more and stay in a hotel which is farther away from the hospital. Thankfully we will be in Easter Seal when Gabrielle is admitted into the hospital so we’ll be nice and close.

One of the little sad mom things I have to deal with, which really isn’t a big deal, is that Gabrielle will miss her first Hallowe’en. We got her a very cute Bumblebee costume and we were going to go to the mall in the afternoon and show her off with her little cousin Hannah. (Who will be an adorable caterpillar.) Yes, I know, in the light of heart surgery, this is not a big deal. It just reminds me of the things we’ve had to give up by having a sick kid.

Anyway, we appreciate your lovely thoughts and prayers as we prepare for this. As we wrap our minds around this, we know that we are not alone.

Hmm… I think we may have to do pre-op day in a bumblebee costume…