We gave kisses and watched our son being carried toward the operating room about an hour ago.  I still don’t know how I managed to hand him over.  He went with a picture of mom and dad, a prayer bear passed onto us by another TOF heart kiddo, and his brave, fierce lion lovey.

And his mom’s heart.

Anesthesia told us the first couple of hours will be putting him to sleep and putting in the many lines they need to give medication, monitor his blood, give blood, etc throughout the long procedure.  Around 10 or 10:30, Dr. Hanley will find us and talk to us before going in for his part of the surgery.  After he is done, it will take the anesthesia team another couple of hours to wrap up and then they will come talk to us.  About 45 minutes to an hour after that, we will finally get to see our boy.

It was reiterated this is a long surgery.  The soonest they anticipate being done is 7 p.m.  So many factors, of course.  Our OR nurse said she has worked a case that went until 6 a.m.  It all depends.  Trying to settle in for a long day of waiting.

We were also told, given the complexity and length of this surgery and his age/size, it is likely they won’t wake him up until the weekend at the earliest.  Again, a lot of factors play into this – maybe Friday, they will decide he is ready to start waking up.  Or it could be a week or two from now.

It’s the uncertainty, the unknown, that bothers me the most.  If only it could be clear cut.  This boy is teaching me so much about going with the flow of life and just taking it one challenge – one joy – at a time.

Please keep praying.  Keep sending messages.  Keep sending wristband pics.  Keep on being #KeenonKiran.