But it's not like this is Grace's first surgery. Or even Grace's first iteration of THIS surgery.

The Childlife person brought her a toy to play with and the nurse brought her a bear in scrubs so Grace could see eveyrthing they were doing -- like taking vitals. Super cute and sweet.

Sigh.

I've already had 32 ounces of tropical passion iced tea!

Kat, I can't even count how many surgeries my mom has had at this point (I'm not sure she can either, honestly), and it sucks just as hard every time. Go easy on yourself, lady.

I cannot get over the clarity you get of the moon itself. And a camera phone.

I KNOW! I cannot wait to get the camera kit so I don't have to futz around so much. The manual says this isn't a great scope for photography and I'm all, uhh...

Aww, cutie bear in scrubs. Yeah, I know what you mean about the time, though. It's a way of managing your fear; okay, by now I should be panicked about X. Now I should be panicked about Y. But you're right that knowing the predicted time would probably have no bearing on the actual time.

right, you know this routine already, sorry I really wasn't thinking. I am so glad the staff is good, that makes a huge difference on the experience.

Nah, msbelle. It's more like I SHOULD be used to it by now.

Suzi, when you used A&I for your mom's book, did you download the software? I MEAN REALLY? It's taking forever!

DH has had a number of minor procedures. Knowing the time helps, but there are so often delays. and i go vaguely crazy and these are minor. I can't imagine if it was my child

The Childlife person brought her a toy to play with and the nurse brought her a bear in scrubs so Grace could see eveyrthing they were doing -- like taking vitals. Super cute and sweet.

Nice!

Yeah, waiting through your loved one's surgery is not fun. Having WIFI was a godsend...also sushi.

The wait is horrid. I wish they would give a bit more thought to letting the parents know ahead of time of the approximate surgery time and also if the surgeon is going to call mid-proceedure to give you an update. During one of the kid's surgeries I remember getting called up to the waiting room desk to take a call from the surgeon and I freaked the flip out. He just wanted to let me know things were progressing fine, but dang. I hadn't expected that at all.

Suzi, when you used A&I for your mom's book

I did. I don't recall it taking a long time though. My struggle came with uploading the finished book to their site. The final product is gorgeous, but if I want to make another photobook, I'll go elsewhere.

We've been using shutterfly for books and it's been great. This software BLOWS.