Surgery #1 is marked off the list

What a day!
We left the house this morning at 6:30am. Polly was in good spirits...she was excited to go out with Mama and Papa. We told her we were taking her to the hospital and she was all for it. She didn't have a clue about what the day would bring even though we've been talking about it for a while.

My mom came from Michigan a couple days ago and she was up to see us off this morning. Her help has been such a blessing. She makes meals and cleans and plays with the kids. She's really taken good care of all of us this week.

So we got to the hospital, parked and before we knew it (really, it was like an hour), Polly was changed into a surgery robe and she was sleepily carried away, through the double doors and out of sight.

Leaving children for surgery reminds me of flying in an airplane. You know it's coming...the plane speeds up and everything starts to wobble and out of nowhere you're up in the air...and there's not a darn thing you to do except ask God for safety and trust the pilot isn't the same dude out of Chicago who recently was caught flying drunk.

We handed Polly over to the surgeons with a kiss and a prayer...'Here you go, Lord. It's all you.' (Even though I am aware that it's always him.)

Sergei and I grabbed some food, talked, waited. Eventually he pulled out his laptop to work on a paper and I read a book. I felt a lot of peace and was thankful so many people were praying for Polly.

Around 11am the surgeon found us in the waiting room. He said that everything went well. We breathed a sigh of relief and settled back to wait to be called to recovery to see Polly.

We waited a while.

And then we heard her name. "Polina Marchenko."

We grabbed our bags and followed a polite gentlemen around a corner and into another long hallway. And then we were once again with Polly.

She was in and out of sleep and fitful. Cords and tubes were tucked in all around her body, hands, feet, a draining tube from her head. But we were with her...she was looking around and ticked...we'll take it!

The rest of the day was up and down for Polly. She's in a lot of pain but it's being controlled. Her incision was much bigger than I expected, she's nauseous and fussy. It was decided later in the day to give her a blood transfusion. She lost quite a bit of blood during and after surgery.

Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day.

We thank God for Polly's surgery and continue to petition for a full recovery.

I'm going to sleep. Need to be back up at the hospital tomorrow at morning at 9am.

Thank you all for your prayers and support.