The night before our daughter's surgery we took our 5 year old son to his first sleepover at our friends' house. He was beyond excited, luckily! It could have gone either way, but he did great! It was so nice to be able to get up at 4am on the morning of the surgery and not have to deal with sibling rivalry or waking 2 exhausted kids. We let our daughter sleep as late as we could. She woke up fine and seemed to be ready for the day, though I could see that she was a bit nervous. She mentioned being scared a few times and I empathized and told her that everyone feels scared the first time they do something they have never done before.
It took about 45 minutes to drive downtown to the hospital and I was holding it together well enough. It seemed a bit surreal to be honest. When we arrived, check-in went smoothly and we went up the the main waiting area. There were many people there and it was all very organized. We were brought back to a room and we got settled in. The nurses did a few things and then. "Child Life Specialist" came in and explained what was going to happen in very child friendly terms. He was really great. He also showed some pictures of where she would go next and where she would wake up.
One of my biggest fears going into surgery was the fact that our daughter has the MTHFR gene mutation (heterozygous). Fortunately the amazing anesthesiologist and I talked 2 nights before about it amd then he came in again to talk more about it while we were in the awesome kids playroom on that floor (they had Frogger and Donkey Kong!!). I could tell that he took the mutation seriously and was very knowledgeable. He really was able to calm a lot of my fears and had great recommendations for the future as far as additional testing to see how she metabolizes specific drugs. Very fascinating information. I also have the mutation but have 2 copies of the A1298C. Either way, nitrous oxide as well as Tyelonol appear to be no-nos for us.
After talking with him, it was time to sign some papers for the nurse, one of which talked about rare anesthesia complications including death so I asked her how rare was rare exactly and she said that she hadnt seen anything rare in her 19 years and had nothing but amazing to say about the anesthesiologist we were working with. That was really helpful to hear. If only she knew how much!!
Our daughter's surgeon came in last and talked with us and joked with our daughter and got her comfortable. I am proud to say our little brave girl did not need the calming medication to get her back to the O.R. She just held her surgeon's hand and walked out the door with her. It was priceless. Watching her walk away was tough, but I didnt get any further than tears stinging my eyes. Huge progress for me!!!
My husband and I walked down to the cafeteria and it was so nice! They had gluten free pancakes!!! Yay!! And eggs, and bacon.... I was even able to eat knowing that she was in such great and capable hands. There were large screens posted all around with the status of patients in surgery. We had a case number and could just check the board, like at the airport, to see where she was in the process. Toward the end, a volunteer came for us and put us in a meeting room so we could talk with the surgeon. She came in and said that our daughter did great and that we could see her shortly. She also drew a helpful diagram of what exactly what she did.
Seeing our daughter in recovery I was prepared for thanks to those who had been in a similar situation. Our daughter was like a wild animal snorting and grunting as she began to come to. I am convinced that it happened so quickly because we knew about the genetic mutation. If I hadnt suffered so many miscarriages along the way I would never have known that I had the mutation or that I had passed it along. Oops:(
Anyway, within about 15 minutes of her waking up, we were in a wheelchair and on our way to the car!!! Unbelievable. She was on morphine so she was feeling no pain on the way home, even strapped into her carseat!
She was happy to be home and settled in. She was a bit sleepy and the pain meds started to wear off about 2 hours before she could take more motrin. Ack. And my husband and my father were out on a mission to find liquid oxycodone. Seemed so hardcore to me that we have kept her just on motrin since surgery. So far so good. The motrin kicked in when she could finally take it and that is when she requested a manicure.
She seems to enjoy all of the attention and tries to garner more. Such a ham! Here is a post surgical photo. It is less disturbing to look at when you know that she is not in pain!!
My next posts will be about filling the expanders. The harder part...
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