Today has been a very long and emotionally draining day, but to cut to the chase, all is well, the surgery was a success and my daughter is in recovery at the Intensive Care Unit.

The day started really early at 06:00am, having to get her fed and changed as we set off for the hospital. It was quite a lengthy admission process, from sorting out the administrative documents, putting down the deposit (yes, a chunk of money has already gone out), warding and being brought to the waiting area at the Operating Theatre, where the surgery only commenced at around 12pm where it was initially slated at 10:30am. There was a delay due to a medical emergency elsewhere which led to one of the doctors being held up, so we were just waiting and waiting while trying to keep a VERY hungry baby calm.

There was an immense sense of dread as I handed my daughter over to the nurses as they brought her in, not knowing if that would have been the last time that I saw her, but at the same time, an odd sense of calm did come over me as I put my faith in the medical team & modern medicine to be able to resolve the issue.

Next came the wait, which, as you can imagine, was excruciating, so a thank you goes to those who sent kind words and distractions my way on Twitter. My wife and I are still absolutely flabbergasted at the amount of support that everyone has been showing to us, whether it be the kind words of support, helping to spread the word or any financial contribution no matter the amount, so thank you all from the bottom of our hearts.

The call from the OT came at around 5pm, basically saying that the operation was done, the surgeon was finishing up and that we would get to see her soon. The emotional load that this little call took off was simply immense, and after a meeting with the surgeon who explained what he did, we were just so relieved that at least this portion is over and done with.

My daughter will be in the ICU for about 3-4 days, where she's current hooked up like this poor baby below. It's an absolutely heart wrenching scene, bit thankfully, the nurses did cover her up with a little towel so that we didn't get that same visual at first glance. The next 6-8 hours post op will be critical as they will be monitoring for bleeding and fluid accumulation, but the staff are very professional and attentive so I'm sure it'll be ok, although it's a thought that will keep me up tonight. Will be back tomorrow to check on her, where hopefully the nurses will slowly start feeding her milk though a tube, with the good news is that she's as cute as ever and seems to be doing just fine.