Pre-surgery preparations

Yesterday, Sofia attended a pre-surgery orientation at Primary Children's Hospital. It went as well as can be expected. She refused to wear her name tag and required a lot of coaxing just to get her in the orientation room. She wanted to ride one of the wagons parked outside instead. She finally agreed to let me put her name tag on her leg. My small feeling of success was shattered when she let out a screeching cry five minutes later while the nurse was talking to the group. Sofia, of course, was trying to peel it off and apparently the hospital uses name stickers with super-glue.

After a video about what to expect during surgery, we were divided into a parents' and a children's group. Ray joined Sofia in the children's group just on the other side of the room. She didn't want to sit on the floor with the kids so she sat on a chair with her daddy. The nurse went over everything that would happen again before and after the surgery. She gave the children each a doll and some medical instruments to play doctor with. Sofia, of course wanted two dolls and demanded the one in the blue gown. She threw a little fit when she got one in the aqua gown. She also tried to steal another boy's doll several times. She kept just having these mini fits and acting a little bit more --what would you call it ... non-compliant than we are used to, at least as far as her public behavior. I think she was tired, nervous and emotional about the whole situation which is still difficult for her to process. After this, we went on a tour of the areas she would spend time in. She was pretty well behaved during this part but made sure to mitigate her interest with displays of disinterest here and there for the record.

On the way home, I tried to see if she wanted to talk about the surgery. I told her that the surgery was for the doctor to take out her "bump". She said, "but they'll poke it". She also told me she didn't think they should take it out because it was dirty. Dirty like ... poopoo. I think maybe she thought that might be a good deterrent to keep them from touching her.

Later that evening, I encouraged her to play doctor with the all the stuff she got at the hospital. She was very interested in doing this in the safety of her own home. At one point, she covered the entire doll with the blanket. I told her we couldn't cover her face because then she wouldn't be able to see or breath. "But she doesn't have any eyes, mommy. She's just pretend". Seeing as Sofia's advanced intellect required more realism than the faceless doll, I volunteered Ray to be her patient. She quickly put on her doctor apparel and grabbed her insect collector tweezers.