8am Update

Good morning, all.  Kelly here.  You'll recognize that immediately as my posts will be far less eloquent than Kiara's.

We checked in at OHSU at 5:30am.  Paperwork, answering the same questions multiple times, waiting, waiting, waiting, being somewhat unimpressed with the first 30 minutes of "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull", waiting...

We met with a surgical resident who drew on Kiara with a magic marker.  She was locating the possible areas where they will take the tissue to create the tongue-space-filler.  We met with the anesthesiologist and his nurse, who were very concerned when Kiara insisted on not having opioid pain killers (they make her vomit).  They were even more surprised when Kiara related she recovered from open-heart surgery using only Tylenol.  Pain is better than vomiting.  They seemed to have some options to try.  Laugh line of the morning (Anesthesiologist to Kiara): "Have you had surgery before?"

Kiara went to the OR at 7:30am.  The doctors anticipate the surgery lasting 10-12 hours.  The surgical nurse will be updating me via phone every 2 hours.  I, in turn, will be posting updates here.

Many thanks to everyone for the support, love, good vibes, prayers, offers to help, and general positivity.  This is a radical, life-altering surgery.  But if it makes the pain go away, it will be worth it.

Back Soon.
-Kelly