surgery scheduled

Yesterday after 2 hours at the ENT (mostly spent in the waiting room as we waited to see the nurse, then to take a hearing test, then to see the doctor), we scheduled Joshua to have surgery on his eardrum on February 26th. The actual surgery takes 10-30 minutes, depending on which procedure the doctor needs to do when she gets in and gets a better view of the hole. It's the anesthesia that makes it a several hour process. I fear that the most painful part of the process will be that Joshua can't have anything except clear liquids from 11pm the night before until the surgery at 11 or noon. Who are they kidding? Joshua not eat for 12 hours? Maybe if I invite the medical staff over for dinner they'll realize that they need to rewrite the rules for my kids and schedule surgery first thing in the morning.