Madi was up bright and early to head to the airport this morning. She was excited to be going back to St Louis, but is nervous for her surgery.
The trip got off to a rocky start when the special assistance counter did not properly check our bag in and we got held at customs until our bag could be located….made it to the gate just in time for boarding!
The flight was a bit bumpy with the bad St Louis weather, but it wa quick and Madison was awesome – coloured the whole time!
Once we landed we headed to pick up our car, which ended up being an issue with the ID and booking card (long story with lots of eye rolling) so we cancelled that booking and jumped on a cab to the hotel.
After a quick lunch and bags dropped in the room, Madi headed to the St Louis Children’s Hospital for her pre-op assessment to discuss the issues she had waking up after SDR and to review a plan for her nephrotic syndrome. We had a very detailed meeting with the nephrologist, anesthesiologist and nurse. They had all her Toronto medical files faxed this morning and spoke with her nephrologist Dr Wong. The plan is to try and keep the surgery to under an hour and push only the fluid that’s needed. They did blood work and urine sample today to have a baseline of her numbers and will do the same the day after her surgery to see if protein is in her urine. So everything was very thorough and good to go. On Thursday for surgery she is not allowed anything by mouth after 5:30am, has to be at the hospital for 11:30 and surgery is at 1:00 (2:00 Toronto time).
After a successful set of appointments and lab work, Madison headed to the Build a Bear at the Galleria – she was super excited because she watches YouTube videos of girls who have been to the same one because the St Louis Galleria location is the first Build a Bear ever created!
She finished her trip to the mall with a wish in the fountain and dinner at The Cheesecake Factory – early to bed for this traveller!