All these posts about preoperative nursing brought back memories of
Miranda's surgery to clear scar tissue from her urethra when she was 3.5
years old.  We were sitting in the preop area, nursing, and the nurse came
in to get her for the surgery and had a fit because she was nursing -- not
the fact that she was 3.5 and still nursing, but because of the NPO orders
from midnight the night before.  I had to calm the nurse down and convince
her that there wasn't any milk, she was just nursing for comfort.  Miranda
was very scared, but had basically nursed herself into a stupor, and laid
down on the gurney like she had been drugged.  When the doctor came in a
minute later he asked "Has she already had her sedative?" and the nurse said
"No, her mother nursed her into that condition!"  And so we had to explain
to the doctor, all over, that there wasn't any milk left!  After the
surgery, they made her drink 32 oz. of Pepsi (!) to facilitate urinating to
make sure the surgery was successful.

Peter had only IVs from birth to day 8 because of duodenal atresia (closed
section of small intestine) related to his Down Syndrome, then nothing by
mouth for 3 days after surgery to allow healing, then pumped breast milk,
finally.  I still remember changing a diaper and seeing a little tiny black
stitch (from the surgery) and joking to my husband that maybe it was one of
his extra chromosomes!  You've got to keep your sense of humor in all of
these situations.....

Kathy Dettwyler