Sunny Shell

It's been a long day.
And we're all home safe and happy and in one piece!!
Miss L finished her breakfast on the stroke of 7.30am as per instructions. Nothing else allowed until after the procedure! Miss L is a girl who complains of hunger about twenty minutes after her previous meal/snack.....
We got to the JR with a bit of time to spare so it was a relaxing stroll in rather than our usual last minute dash.
We bumped into Mrs C who we hadn't seen for ages and it was lovely to see her!
In the waiting playroom Miss L played happily which was great. She wasn't at all fazed by being there which was a relief.
And we bumped into Mrs J in the waiting room who we haven't seen for ages so that was lovely too!
After about forty minutes of waiting/playing it was a whirlwind of paperwork, questions, chats with the lovely anaesthetist, temperature taking, questions,weighing, monitoring blood pressure, heart rate, questions, chats with the surgeon (endoscopist?), paperwork, MRSA screening, asking for a lollipop, donning hospital robes, paperwork, a bit of swinging on the fab TV hanging over the bed, questions, asking for a lollipop.....
Before we knew it, we'd been there for two and a half hours and it was time for her to go down. She was first on the list.
We walked the three and a half miles to the endoscopy department and - as an exception to the normal rule - they let both of us go in with her.
Mr K held on to her while the nurse blew lots of bubbles and the anaesthetist held the mask near her mouth so she'd start breathing in the gas. She was calm and quite comfortable so he held it closer and closer to her mouth, and eventually had it clamped on! She was still bright eyed and bushy tailed, happily watching the bubbles.
The anaesthetist kept asking the woman at the machine to turn it up quarter of a percent, quarter of a percent, quarter of a percent, then looking at our wide awake girl he said "all the way up!!"
I kept expecting her eyes to flutter like they do in the car when she falls asleep but as it went on and on I was getting more anxious. Why wasn't it working?!!
Eventually, after an hour five minutes she started fighting it and wriggling and they had to put her on to the bed and hold her down which was pretty hard to watch.
The lovely anaesthetist eventually told everyone to let go and let her wriggle.
It was such a relief when she was finally still. And then I burst into floods of tears and begged them to look after her. She's only little!
We went to the cafe but didn't want anything. I forced down some orange juice and a Snickers. Then it was back to pace around in the waiting room and wait.
Just as I was starting to worry that it was taking too long the doctor came to tell us it had all gone well and that we'd see her in a few minutes.
The nurse had hold of her when we went into the recovery room and, half unconscious, Miss L reached for me and mumbled "Mummy. Can'ave lolpop?"
That's my girl!
By the time we got back to the ward she was quite perky and demolished her enormous lollipop. Followed by juice, a bowl of rice krispies, a banana and a round of toast!!
We stayed for about an hour and a half and then she was discharged. With a present from the nurse of a fairy dress up set which she loved and I thought was such a sweet thing to do.
She said in the car that she'd had a fun day. What an angel!
So we're home. It's over.
Thank God.