Mark your calenders

A date has been set ... Monday, April 9th (the day after Easter) Claira will undergo open heart surgery.
This afternoon Billie, Dr. Kimberling's assistant called after the conference that was held. Three cardiologists and the pediatric cardiovascular surgeon met and discussed Claira at length. The main concern was her feeding issues and all agreed that her heart needed to be repaired first and then consider a gastric tube if needed. I asked her several times if everyone agreed on this plan of action, I needed to know for sure. I called Dr. Ranne's office and scheduled a surgical consult and the surgery. The secretary asked me when I wanted to do the surgery and I paused ... I told her that was a terrible thing to ask me! It would have been easier if they told me when it would be rather than having to select a date. In the end she chose the next available time.
The surgeon's staff referred me to a great resource for the rest of the kids. Child Life in St. Francis hospital. They are an organization throughout the country that helps children cope with being in the hospital or having a sibling in the hospital. The representative today said that she will meet with Dr. Ranne to find out exactly what Claira will have done. On the 3rd of April our family will go to the hospital for a "tour". Child Life will talk to the kids and answer any questions they might have. They will take them to the rooms she'll be in throughout her visit in the hospital. If there's a room available in the PICU they'll be able to go in there as well. Tom and I have really been struggling with whether or not we'll let the kids see her afterwards. Child Life said that research has shown that it's better to be straight forward with kids and let them see exactly what's going on. They have found that children do better in the end. Kids have such imaginations that they can sometimes make things worse in their head than they really are. They've taken polaroids of the sibling first and shown it to the kids before they let them in the room too. The book "My Brother Needs An Operation" was also suggested. And to add to all the support, our city librarian called today and did some research for us and hunted down a video by Slim Goodbody from a library in Colorado that is also highly recommended.