Nicole's first surgery was performed at The Children's Hospital of Buffalo on Tuesday April 26, 1994. She was scheduled for surgery at 8:00am so we had to arrive at the hospital at 6:00am. We got up at 4:30am to prepare for the trip. As expected, we were pretty nervous about what was in store that day. Annette and I showered and packed a bag for Nicole and ourselves. I ate breakfast, but Annette said she couldn't possibly eat anything. We let Nicole sleep as long as we could before waking her for the trip to the hospital. Annette went to wake Nicole around 5:15am. I was downstairs getting ready waiting for Annette and Nicole. After several minutes I wondered why they weren't downstairs yet. I went to Nicole's room and found Annette standing in front of Nicole's crib with tears in her eyes. She told me she just couldn't bring herself to wake Nicole and I would have to do it. I got Nicole ready and we left for the hospital.
The surgery started pretty much on schedule. We met with both the plastic surgeon and nuerosurgeon before they started. They told us the procedure would take about 4 hours. The waiting began...
I tried to pass the time by writing a letter, reading and listening to some music. Although sleep would have been welcome, it wasn't a possibility until we knew everyting was OK with Nicole. At about 11:15 the nuerosurgeon came out of the operating room. My first thought was, "Oh God, what went wrong!". The nuerosurgeon was simply there to let us know that the surgery was nearly completed and the plastic surgeon would be out soon. He told us that from his standpoint the surgery went well with the exception of one little "glitch". He said that when he removed the bone from the skull, he nicked the membrane which surrounds the brain and had to use one stitch to close it. I guess that's considered a glitch to a nuerosurgeon. Me, I was thinking maybe he dropped the scalpel and had to get a new one. A short time later, the plastic surgeon emerged from the operating and told us that all went well. She told us that she had used some excess bone to build up Nicole's eyebrows and the bridge of her nose (which was fairly recessed). She told us we could see Nicole in about an hour, after she recovered, in the intensive care unit. We went out for a bite to eat and returned within the hour to see our little angel.
Sorry, we're still building...