Big Fat Ugly Surgery Vent

Don't say I didn't warn you.

Last week, I got a call from the neurosurgeon's office telling me that the neurosurgeon scheduled for Max's surgery in March was being called away on a conference, so they told us we had two choices- we could either push the surgery back until May and use the original neurosurgeon, or we could use a different pediatric neurosurgeon in the same practice. We really couldn't handle the idea of moving the surgery back two more months, and decided that since the neurosurgeon's part is relatively minor, that we would keep the March surgery date, and switch the neurosurgeon.

OK, fine. That was all set. Until they called again the next day and told us we were going to have to switch neurosurgeons again. Fine. The last time we met with the neuro, we waited 2 1/2 hours to talk with the neurosurgeon for five minutes. We've been through this before, I don't think I have any questions, and it's not nearly as important to me who the neurosurgeon is.  The neurosurgeon's part of the surgery is relatively small, and he's only there for about an hour of the five hour surgery.  I don't mean to sound callous, but any trip to Primary's requires at least four hours, and I don't see the point of blowing an entire day just so we can shake the neurosurgeon's hand and talk to him for two minutes. 

So then this morning, my craniofacial surgeon's office calls and tells me they have to move the surgery date. I very nearly lost it. This is our third surgery date, and it got moved from Thursday, March 25th to the following Tuesday, the 30th. It's not that big of a change, but it's so frustrating. I had to call the ENT's and arrange for another surgeon to place the ear tubes, and we're now stuck using yet another doctor we've never met to perform a surgery on my little boy. My husband now has to take an entire week off of work instead of two days. I also have to re-do my entire ENTIRE(!) spring violin lesson schedule. This also impacts my child care because my parents were going to take the older girls on the Thursday and Friday after surgery, so they were only going to miss two days. Well, they can't miss four days of school, so now my parents are stuck either coming up here to stay for the week, or my poor husband is going to be doing some major juggling and driving the hour back and forth.

And on top of that, (and here comes the vent- you've been warned!) we shouldn't even be going through this in the first place! If the damn surgeon had just done his job in the first place, this whole process would be far behind us. Instead, we're ramping up for another surgery, this time with a walking, talking toddler who's going to be much more angry about the whole process. I just can't believe we're here again! It's not fair that my baby boy has to go through all this again, especially when we had so many complications the first time around. Not fair that we're having all this drama leading up to it. I'm hesitant to even re-do my spring schedule, because I'm afraid that they're just going to call and move the surgery again. Seriously, one surgery is bad enough. One surgery with complications is bad enough. But two surgeries with all this drama is making me crazy. I spent hours cussing out the surgeons this morning, feeling like a toddler throwing a temper tantrum.

Yes, I know it's all going to be ok. Sooner or later, he will actually have surgery, and this will all be over. In a few years, I'll look back at this and wonder why it was even a big deal in the first place. But right now, I'm still pretty irritated at the load of *$^@(* this whole situation is.  I promise to return to myself tomorrow.  But tonight, I reserve the right to kick and scream for a little longer.