Bone density and surgery schedule

Evan was up at 11:30 last night. Then Sara got up at 2:30am to go to the bathroom. She woke me up and said "What's dad doing?" Ummm...sleeping. "No, what was he doing last night?" I guess she was confused because Shannon had left to go to WalMart when she went to bed. Then Evan woke up at 5:30am and didn't want to go back to sleep. So the boys went down for breakfast at 6:15am while I got in the shower. By the time Sara and I got back from our turn at breakfast, Shannon was laying Evan down for a nap at 8:00! We all had some quiet time in the bedroom. The kids watched cartoons, colored, and drew pictures on Sara's light up tracing pad. I read over some of Adam's introduction to 1st Grade papers to become more familiar with his teacher.

We woke Evan at 11:00 so we could meet someone from the Child Life Team at St. Mary's Hospital for a tour of the pediatric floor. It was nice to see what a room would look like and where snacks were located. The kids were pretty excited about the play room. And Wednesday they are having super heroes rappele the building cleaning windows and paying the kids a visit!

Off to lunch in the cafeteria and then on to Sara's Bone Density test. First they took a few pictures of her lower abdomen. It was probably the best I have seen her kidney stones show up in one image in front of me. I should have taken a picture on my phone of the computer screen but they will post the image on our Mayo Patient website in a day or two. It is shocking and I have seen a lot of pictures of her stones. Then Sara had to lay still for 7 minutes while the camera moved over her taking a full body scan.

She did fantastic and the time passed quickly. It reminded me of a copy machine because that overhead gray piece had a glass on the bottom and something passed from left to right, back and forth, as it moved down her body and took images. I laughed as Sara's eyes followed it like she was watching a tennis match. As the scanner took pictures, it created a skeleton of her body on a computer screen, layer by layer, starting with her head. When it was done a full image of her skeleton was in front of me to look at and then the computer generated a rendering of the skeleton with skin on. She thought that was pretty cool! I did, too!

We caught up with the boys who were dropping off her 24 hour urine sample and prepaying for her surgery before heading back to the hotel for another nap for Evan. Shannon took Adam and Sara swimming while I spent an hour finishing payroll for work. After sleeping for 2 1/2 hours, I woke Evan at 5 so we could go to dinner. One tired boy! We wanted to go out for skillet cookie dessert but the big kids were having a very difficult day of listening and ran out of chances.

As I tucked Adam and Sara in bed we talked about what was going to happen tomorrow. She is older now and will remember more about her surgery. It was a little hard to hear her say, "After my surgery I will probably rest a few minutes in bed and then I can go down to the playroom, which will be fun!" I had to explain that it could be part of a day before she might feel up to it and she might be sore. I am just so thankful she doesn't have fear or anxiety at this point. Lights out without a peep from anyone tonight at 7:30!

I called in tonight for her surgery arrival time tomorrow--we are to arrive at Mayo Clinic at 6:15am! I am uncertain right now how long the pre-op process will be and when surgery is estimated to start. We are praying specifically for:

1. The general logistics of the day and navigating that with Adam and Evan. 
2. Smooth placement of the tubes directly into Sara's kidneys that offer the best possible access for removal of all the stones without injuring her kidneys or any other organs.
3. Complete eradication of all stones in her kidneys.
4. Further answers as to the makeup of the stones which could lead to insight about why they are forming.
5. That the surgery on the first kidney would go so well that they can move forward with surgery on the second kidney under the same anesthesia.

I will update when we know more!