Yesterday we woke up and got out of the house early so Andy would get a chance to see Amirah because he hadn't seen her since last weekend. We were immediately stuck in traffic that was moving less than 5mph. I tried to stay calm, I really wanted to get to the hospital before she went down to the OR. After about a half hour we finally made it through the trouble (a bad accident that moved 3 lanes of traffic down to 1).
We got to the hospital by 8:15 and Amirah was awake and in a very good mood. She immediately gave Andy her little smile and looked very happy and comfortable. The nurse told us that she should be getting the call any minute for Amirah to be transferred to the OR.
The Respiratory Therapist came in to get her set up for transportation. Then about 45 minutes later they got a message that her surgery had been moved to about 12:30. While this was a slight pain because Andy was barely functioning on 2 hours of sleep, we knew that what ever was suppose to be would be.
Andy and I then napped in some chairs. then around 10:30 or so the doctors where doing their rounds and asked Andy and I to come in while they did Amirah's. Apparently there was a little mix up with her lipids and the TPN's she was receiving. While it hadn't gone on long, they did just want to let us know it happened. They were just going to monitor her blood sugars.
Amirah fell asleep at this point so we went to find Andy some breakfast.
When we went back upstairs to see Amirah her surgeon was looking for us. He was paged and came back to her room. He then told us they were canceling her surgery for that day. Apparently the OR was having some fire alarms that wouldn't clear and the surgery that was scheduled before her hadn't even begun. The exact words the surgeon used was that "it was not optimal to start her type of surgery so late in the day on a Friday". I think he was expecting me and Andy to through some sort of fit. But our reaction was calm and basically we told him we were okay with what ever needed to happen. We definitely wanted the situation to be optimal.
Soooooo, after we got that bit of news Andy held Amirah for about 45 minutes. They both feel asleep :). We put Amirah back in her crib, changed her diaper, cleaned her up and got her ready for some food. We left then and went out to lunch with my parents.
We got home and I immediately slept for about 3 hours. Then we hung out with my parents for a little while and Andy went to bed about 6:30.
Today we feel refreshed. What we told the surgeon about being ok with what ever needed to happen is the truth. In addition, I think it was better for Andy that the surgery was moved. He was really able to decompress a little from the week. This work week was particularly stressful for him. I won't go into all the details, but basically it started with his glasses breaking that morning, an emergency landing for mechanical difficulties, a hotel with no hot water, and worst of all for Andy no amazing BBQ food in St. Louis. He then got home at 10pm on Wednesday night only to have to be at work from 7am-4pm and then again from 7:30pm -2:30am. And then for that second shift they weren't even able to do the work that they needed to do. Needless to say it was a ROUGH week for Andy and he really needs a relaxing weekend.
Amirah's surgery has been rescheduled for 10:30am on Monday. Like I said this give Andy and I a chance to relax and to get back in line with our positive thinking. I know that every thing happens for a reason. And to use the language my mother uses... this is Divine Order.
Please continue to send us love,thoughts and prayers. And thank you for all that you already do send us. All the love that we have surrounding us is amazing.
Love is Always.
(This is Andy here)
Hi.. I wanted to include one very strange incident that happened to me on the way home. You can interpret it how you wish.
My flight leaving ST. Louis was at 1 pm, so I was at the airport by 1130 or so, and to say I was dead on my feet would be an understatement. After going through all the crap of airport security, I arrived at my gate. When I got to my gate I immediately noticed two things. The first, was my gate appeared to have US Airways rocking chairs! Real, old fashioned rocking chairs, with the US Airways logo on them. I have been flying around the world since the age of 13 or so, and I have been in numerous airports. I was pretty surprised as I had NEVER seen rocking chairs in a airport. The second, even stranger thing, was seeing a man that appeared to be a priest sitting in one of the rocking chairs. What made him stand out to me was the fact that his ENTIRE face was blue. As in Navy blue. Like a giant birthmark or something. His face was blue, but the rest of him was a normal white skin color. He was wearing all black, with a dark navy blue suit jacket. I figured he was a priest because of the clerical collar. It was VERY strange, but at the moment I ignored it, being that I was tired and all I wanted to do was get on my flight.
So I found a seat, sat down, and while listening to my book, I surfed the internet on my phone (this of course if you know me consists of surfing the news sites). I was feeling extremely tired right about then, and everything had taken on a dream like quality. I will remind you that I was exhausted, so there is a possibility that I was actually dozing when the rest of this occurred, or I could have been having a "waking dream".
While I was sitting there, I suddenly got the strong feeling that I was being watched. I tried to ignore it at first, but it was so strong that I HAD to look up and around to see who was watching me, and why. When I looked up and to the right, sitting in a rocking chair next to the blue face priest was ANOTHER priest! This one looked to me like he could have been the blue faced priest's twin brother, except his face was normal. He was wearing a white seersucker suit, with a black shirt and a clerical collar. As I looked at him, our eyes caught, and he suddenly gave me a subtle smile. This really threw me, because I was thinking "What is THAT about?!?".
The priest in white, still looking at me, leaned over to Blue Face. He whispered something to him, nodded his head in my direction, and glanced back at me again. Blue Face turned and glanced at me as well. I don't know why, but that really freaked me out, and I immediately sat back in my chair and looked at my phone. I couldn't tell you why I felt I needed to do it, but I did. I sat back, had a mental shrug, and went back to the news stories. I glanced over to them a few times, but every time I looked, they where in a animated discussion. I looked over once as a group of people walked over and greeted the two of them. I saw them leave, and even come back. Something to keep in mind, when ever I am in an airport, I try to really pay attention to what flights are called at what gate. No flights where called near any gates near me, until my flight was called. There were perhaps 25-30 minutes that went by from when I sat down, to when my flight was called. When I got up and boarded the plane (it was a small commuter jet) I looked around for the priests, but they were no where to be found. I really didn't think anything more about it, almost until I landed in NYC about 8 hours later. Yes, it was a HORRIBLE flight with me literally jammed into the worst seats on the plane.
I was really cursing my fate on the second flight, when I was crammed into the rear window seat (you know, the one that doesn't lean back at all, and has half the leg room of the other seats.) when I thought, maybe I should just count my blessings. My daughter has a hard, long road ahead of her, but she IS out of the woods. Recovery may be long, but one day she can be just a NORMAL little girl. Things could have been SO much worse. Hell, I had an emergency landing, and it was nothing really at all.
And that's when I thought of the two priests in the St. Louis Airport. I don't know why they popped back into my head then, but they did. I told my wife and mother in law about it. They think its a little strange too.
Maybe I had a lucid, bizarre waking dream, all tied up in all the stress and anxiety that has become our lives. Maybe it was just a mind fart. Hell, for all I know, it was just two priests in an airport, one with a birthmark, and my sometimes imaginative mind made something out of nothing. In light of all that is happening however, and talking about it some, we thought maybe I should share this little experience with you.
As always, thank you for your love, support and prayers.
Talk to you later, Amirah Nation.
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