As I was leaving for dinner last night with three of my absolutely wonderful and amazing friends, Leland mentioned that he was going to tell the kids about the surgery. Since we have a long day of pre-op doctors appointments in New York and their schedule was going to be affected slightly, he wanted to tell them why. Should I have been there? I wasn’t sure. He thought it might be better without me present just in case the kids weren’t on their best behavior and it might save me some irritation. I knew that the kids would be fine in his calm, capable hands.
During dinner I got the following text:
“Hi, so ended up spending about 40 minutes talking to the kids. Not the best conversation. At times I got irritated when they weren’t being serious. In hindsight, my water balloon analogy to explain the surgery was probably not the best choice (they giggled). But once everyone calmed down, they asked lots of good questions.”
That went well, don’t you think? (Quote from what movie??)
When I got home, he told me that it was a very “fact-based” conversation. What was happening, who was watching them, a simplified version of what was going to be done and what they should expect my recovery to be like. He did NOT discuss the genetic ramifications at all.
This morning as I was helping my six-year old son get dressed, he said, “Are you having your surgery today?”
“No,” I said, “not today.”
“When,” he asked.
“In a month.”
“Oh,” he said.
Then he gave me a big hug!
A month means nothing to a child. I suppose I’ll get this question a lot over the next 30 days. That’s ok.