A midnight report from the hospital

Actually, it's well after midnight here in Jerusalem, but after a long day here at Hadassah Ein Kerem and Yonah finally sleeping in his hospital bed next to where I am typing this, I feel like I need to put up a post for all of you who sent emails, left comments and generally sent good juju our way.

I'm not up to writing too much at the moment, so I'll let some pictures speak for themselves.

Zahava, Yonah and I arrived at the hospital around 1:00PM.  Since Yonah and I had done all the paperwork the previous day all we had to do today was show up and go right to the floor where Yonah would be staying.  The nurses there showed us to Yonah's room and he was clearly delighted:

Yonah really liked the room  The bed had wheels (as promised) and there was even a train on the ceiling!

It turns out Yonah wasn't going to be taken for surgery until after three so we took him down the hall to the play room where he was reunited with our friend and hero, Nurse Noa:

After Noa went back to work we took Yonah back to the room and decided to let him try on his snazzy hospital pajamas.  If they had these in my size I would so steal a pair!

And of course there is the whole ID bracelet thing. I briefly entertained the idea of asking for a different color... but in the end I decided Yonah's manhood was not threatened by the pinkness of the bracelet:

After the fun of high fashion wore off, Yonah and Zahava settled in for a little quality time in front of a DVD movie on the laptop:

No sooner had the movie gotten going when some volunteer clowns stopped by to play with Yonah and make some balloon animals with him:

Of course once the clowns were gone, there was the inevitable post-clown let-down.  I think Yonah got the idea that this hospital thing would be one long party.

Even Ima's lap can't make the waiting much fun.

But finally they came for Yonah and he got to try out the rolling bed he'd heard so much about:

And down the hall we went.

And into elevators...

Down yet another hallway...

Until we arrived at the holding area beyond which only one parent can continue.  Zahava was a very good sport and let me take Yonah to the O.R..  Here she is having a little fun with Yonah before she had to say goodbye:

From there Yonah and I went to a small hallway outside the O.R. where I had to gown up and Yonah had to put on a hair net over his kippah (only in Israel!).  I think this was the point where it suddenly hit him that this operation thing was actually going to happen:

The surgery before us went a bit long and then they had to clean up the O.R., so while we waited to go in, Yonah reviewed his charts:

Suddenly the doors were opened and I was told to carry Yonah in and place him on the table (actually a smaller bed).  This was the point when he decided he didn't want the operation after all.

Unfortunately, once you get to this point, there is no going back.  So with some gentle encouragement from me, the surgeon and anesthesiologist, the mask with the happy gas was put into place... and within seconds Yonah was out.

I was kinda hoping nobody would notice me and I could sort of hang out and watch the operation.  But it turns out there was a nurse there whose only job was to wait until the kid was out cold and then escort me out to the waiting room.  Rats!

Zahava  and I had missed lunch so we ran down to the food court for a quick dinner of quiche (hers was artichoke and mine was mushroom), salads and coffee.  By the time we got back the surgeon had just come out and we were escorted to the recovery room where Yonah was just starting to thrash about as the anesthesia wore off.

As soon as he opened his eyes, the doc asked me to put Yonah on my lap so that he would feel more secure:

After a bit, they had to give him some more pain meds so I put him back onto the bed.

He was mostly sleeping at this point, so all Zahava and I could do was hold his hand...

And look at his pitiful face

... until finally our little boy woke up for real.

It is now almost 2:00AM and I have Yonah snuggled in next to me.  The nurse has come in twice to adjust his IV and check on him... but at this point I'm going to have to get some sleep or I'll be useless in the morning.

Some time during the day they will evaluate Yonah and let us know if he can go home or if he needs to stay another night.  I hope we can take him home as soon as possible so we can all sleep in our own beds.

Good night.