Hi Leighanne -
My husband, sons, and in-laws all stayed in the waiting room. One son lives with us, one son flew out from New York, and my in-laws drove out from Colorado. I know my husband was glad to have all of them there and I was really glad to know they were there too. There were some other family members who wanted to come too but my husband and I felt like they'd be more work than support so we strongly discouraged them. I hope I'm wording that delicately enough.
One other thing, though, was that the pre-op people told my husband that he could go get breakfast after they took me away but that he must be back to the surgical waiting room in two hours. We had read previously that the surgery would probably take 4-8 hours, but my husband thought that maybe mine wouldn't take so long, because he had those instructions to return at two hours. So they all came back to the waiting room at the two hour mark and when nobody came to talk to them, they began to worry. The surgery ended up taking 6 1/2 hours and by that time, they were near panic.
Best wishes to you, ~Susan