Surgery Day for Grandma

Friday 21 November

Quite a change of pace for Friday - up and out early to scoop up the twins from Sandringham while Sara & Michael drove Helen into Auckland Hospital. An 8am check-in at the Transition Lounge before Helen led the parade of surgery patients up to L8 for theatre prep. Louis & Sara were allowed to go through with her, but the twins and I hung out in the corridor playing "I went to Antarctica and I took..." whilst waiting for updates. Eventually it was confirmed that Helen would not go into surgery until around noon so she was released to head to the cafe to watch her family enduring bland coffee and dry scones (looking at you, Jamaica Blue!) as she was still nil by mouth.

Finally at around noon, all scrubbed, prepped and feeling nervous, Helen was wheeled away to the operating theatre and We all dispersed and went our separate ways - Louis, Amy & twins went swimming, Sara & Michael went out to lunch, and I got a leg wax with lovely Ninette at Varela's Beauty, bought a few kgs of prosciutto from Gilmours for the gang, dropped the car back at the Fernandi’s and plugged it in (worried about the range lasting for the rest of the day), got a lift from Jez & Abby to New Lynn station & a train to the CBD to grab the Goldschmidt’s car.

We all reconvened back at the hospital around 4ish and soon got a call to say she was out of surgery and recovering in PACU… more updates to follow. The whānau hung out playing more silly games, getting burgers from the only place still open and chatting for an hour or three before the next call to say Helen had woken so Sara then Louis, then the rest of us all got to visit her before she was moved to the ward.

A long & emotional day for everyone but everything seems to have gone really well and now we just have to get through the recovery stage ❤️‍🩹