Tuesday, October 2, 2012
Day of Surgery!!!!
This is how things happened for us and I was very adimit about not to sugar coating any of it so that you can have an honest account....
I got out of bed quickly since I had already been awake for most of the night. Isa woke up as soon as we carried her out of bed and said she was ready to go.
We arrived rather quickly at the hospital since 6 am traffic is very slow. We took a deep breath and made the journey inside, where we met some family members. First, was admissions where Isa received her bracelet. At this point Isa was still in very good spirits. We received a cart ride to the pre-op area. Isa put her hands in the air and joked about it being a ride :) Once we arrived to the pre-op. area it was just Jon, Isa, and myself. This is where Isa started to get nervous and hugged her American girl doll tight. We walked into the pediatric pre-op area where the walls were nicely painted with animals and butterflies and there were ride on cars. Isa had her height and weight taken. We met many nurses, including the nurse that would be in the O.R. and we also talked with Dr. Vin. The child life specialist came in to talk to Isa about getting ready for surgery. She provided her with a coloring rag doll and told her it was her buddy that would be with her. Isa was distracted by this. When she was done coloring the doll she was provided with an Ipad by the child life specialist with many apps. Her favorite was Toca Doctor and she played that until they came to take her. The anesthesiologist gave us the option of giving her a sleepy syrup. He asked how she had reacted last time she left the pre-op area to go to the O.R. She was very terrified and was screaming so we opted to give her the sleepy syrup. He said that she should be very sleepy within 15 minutes and shouldn't remember leaving us and going into the O.R. Of course it would be like Isa not to feel sleepy but she was definitely much more relaxed than last time. The child life specialist went to the O.R. with her providing her some comfort and a familiar face, she was the same one who gave us the hospital tour. Although she cried very little it was still heart wrenching to have to leave her! Surgery started at 8 am.
Jon and I walked out of the pre-op area crying, especially me. I said many prayers as we walked over to the surgical waiting lobby.
In the surgical waiting room we waited what seemed to be hours on hours, but in reality it was three hours. Dr. Vin cam out once surgery was done and said that everything went very well and that he was able to rotate her femur bone about 40-45 degrees successfully. He said that within minutes we should be called into the recovery area. I felt a rush of relief that surgery had gone well but knew that this was just the beginning of our journey.
Within a few minutes we were told that I would be allowed back, not Jon. I followed the receptionist man very anxious to see my little baby. However, apparently he didn't know where to go because he took me to adult intensive care, followed by the child intensive care, and then we did a huge loop to end up in the same waiting area where he made a call. My poor baby had already left the post-op area and was in a room. I felt devastated thinking that I had told her that I would be there when she woke up and now she was probably frightened and without me or any familiar face. Jon came over and the man tried to explain to him what was going on, Jon felt just as frustrated and told the guy not to worry explaining it but to just find her. Finally he was able to obtain a room number. We rushed over there and I found my baby crying and very frightened. When she saw me she felt better but yet she was still confused and in pain. Within a few minutes Jon was in the room too. Isa kept screaming that she was in pain, that she didn't want a cast on , and tried to pull out her IV. This was extremely painful to witness! I couldn't contain tears from silently falling. The nurse said she would give her morphine to calm her down and hopefully she would sleep and not remember what had just happened.
Lucky she was able to sleep for about two hours. When she did wake up she woke up much more calm but in a lot of pain still and very frightened. For the remainder of the day she spent it in this pattern, waking in much pain and being scared about not being able to move her legs and then sleeping once she was given medication. Dr. Vin visited us again to see how she was doing, he checked her for swelling to see if the cast needed to be split, it didn't.
She hadn't used the restroom since the morning and we were worried. The nurse said that she really needed to urinate otherwise she would have to have a catheter otherwise her bladder won't expand too much. They gave her a few hours into the evening and she managed to urinate a minute amount. They contacted Dr. Vin and he said that for her safety they would have to put a catheter in to empty her bladder and then give her a few hours to go to the bathroom on her own if not they would have to put it in again and leave it in. It was hard to hear because I knew it was going to be extremely difficult to handle. Three nurses had to come in to do it and Jon and I held her arms. It was one of the most difficult things to experience! She was screaming that it hurt and to stop as she looked right at Jon and I. I couldn't help but cry silently as I told her that it would all be over in a minute. I know that it must have only taken a few minutes but it seemed like hours because it was so difficult.
Thank God that within a few hours she asked to go to the bathroom on her own. Around 2 am she was finally awake enough to be herself :-) However, she was still in a lot of pain and like clockwork as soon as the medicine wore off she was yelling the she was in pain.
End of day 1in the hospital.
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