Thursday, March 11th, 2010

My parents figured with my URI returning there is no way they would want to do the preop appointment today - boy were they wrong! So off we all went to Palo Alto for what my parents knew would be a 5 minute appointment after a 2+ hour drive.

I was pretty good going down and due to lack of construction that we normally ran into - the drive took only 2 hours and my parents ended up an hour early to the appointment. Now that the surgeon is in private practice they went to a new location. He has joined a group of mostly cosmetic doctors so when we entered the office it was a very different experience then the previous appointments at Lucile Packard. First, this was a clinic obviously catering to high end adult clients - not children. There was nothing kid friendly about the place (unless you call watching videos on each of the doctor's specialties on a big screen tv kid friendly). The office manager seemed profoundly irritated that we were early but agreed to let us be seen because our surgeon was available. Once in the room, it only took a few minutes before Dr Schendel arrived. As expected, he explained to my parents the surgery (which we already knew about from our preop appointment in September of last year). He said as long as I was feeling better by Tuesday morning then surgery would go on as expected. So in about 4.5 minutes, the appointment was over. We had a little paperwork to be filled out and while we were waiting my parents heard the sound known to all parents that signifies terror (except my parents who usually laugh) the sound of a really bad diaper. The smell was awful between soy formula and pedialite. About that time, the office manager walked back in and Mommy asked her where the rest room was. Initially she said it would just be a minute more to get the paperwork but when the smell hit her she must have changed her mind and showed Mommy the exit. The look on her face was priceless - nothing like a stinky diaper in a clinic where everyone is getting Botox! Hard to maintain that spa like feeling! After the diaper change (again, not a kid friendly place so Mommy had to set me on the ground in the restroom to change me - ick!) we were able to get the paperwork and get back on the road. I slept the car ride home. But once we got home I was in no mood to be moved around and started crying which started me into a coughing fit that eventually led to vomiting. That seemed to help the coughing, though, and once I got cleaned up I was feeling much better. When I went to bed tonight I had another coughing fit start up but after about 20 minutes eventually settled down and went to sleep.

Peyton Nicole Smith