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Sheena's finally home. We had a perfect journey home yesterday, I felt like someone was watching out for us. There were only 14 people on the flight so Sheena was able to stretch out on the front row seats and was very comfortable the entire trip. I worried about coming home so much, I can't believe it was that easy!
I wanted to briefly tell about the surgery for those of you waiting, I know it helped me tremedously to see what others had been through. She ended up being fused from T4-L4, one less than originally planned. Her actual surgery took 5 hours, pre-surgical preparations took exactly one hour and she was in recovery for about 1 hr 45 min. We had our own private waiting area, the nurse updated us 3 times during the operation. It was very difficult waiting but not as bad as I expected. Dr. Lenke came out afterwards to let us know that everything went well and she was receiving her own unit of blood, we were fortunate that was the only unit she needed. She does have a low hemoglobin level but we'll get her back up in time. She went directly to PICU after surgery and spent the night there. She was drowsy that night and the next day from anesthesia so her pain was under control. There are things that are normal after surgery that we were made aware of because my stepdaughter, the nurse, was there for the first 3 days. Low blood pressure (her's hovered around 95/50) for the first few days, high pulse, low O2 saturation, swelling in the face, extremities and genitals and fever are all very common after surgery. Her fever ran as high as 102.8 the 3rd day, which was normal. She had 2 drains that they empty every 4 hours and there is a lot of fluid that comes out. They also have them on IV antibiotics as long as the drains are in. They took them out on Monday. They also took her off the continuous morphine drip that day and should have overlapped the oral pain meds but didn't because she wasn't eating. I think that was a big mistake, they should have given them to her because that's when her pain really became intense and was difficult to control. I also figured out where the hip pain is coming from, there's a hard lump where one of her drains was removed, I massaged it yesterday and it brought her almost instant relief. You wouldn't think something like that would cause her intense pain, but that's been much worse than her back pain. The office is closed for the holidays but I'm going to call Monday and tell them about it. It's not infected and is causing less pain so I think it will eventually diminish. If not for the problem with her hip, I think her recovery would have been much better.
Since she's been home, she's started to eat when she feels like it. Her pain is worse at night and in the mornings. I'm making her take pain meds in the middle of the night to try to control it. The best thing is that every day is a little better than the day before. I'm very happy with her surgical results, her chest is very uniform and she looks so nice when she stands up. It exceeded my expectations. I know there will be a day when she's fully recuperated and this will be a distant memory.
Thanks again to everyone who's been here to support us.
I wanted to briefly tell about the surgery for those of you waiting, I know it helped me tremedously to see what others had been through. She ended up being fused from T4-L4, one less than originally planned. Her actual surgery took 5 hours, pre-surgical preparations took exactly one hour and she was in recovery for about 1 hr 45 min. We had our own private waiting area, the nurse updated us 3 times during the operation. It was very difficult waiting but not as bad as I expected. Dr. Lenke came out afterwards to let us know that everything went well and she was receiving her own unit of blood, we were fortunate that was the only unit she needed. She does have a low hemoglobin level but we'll get her back up in time. She went directly to PICU after surgery and spent the night there. She was drowsy that night and the next day from anesthesia so her pain was under control. There are things that are normal after surgery that we were made aware of because my stepdaughter, the nurse, was there for the first 3 days. Low blood pressure (her's hovered around 95/50) for the first few days, high pulse, low O2 saturation, swelling in the face, extremities and genitals and fever are all very common after surgery. Her fever ran as high as 102.8 the 3rd day, which was normal. She had 2 drains that they empty every 4 hours and there is a lot of fluid that comes out. They also have them on IV antibiotics as long as the drains are in. They took them out on Monday. They also took her off the continuous morphine drip that day and should have overlapped the oral pain meds but didn't because she wasn't eating. I think that was a big mistake, they should have given them to her because that's when her pain really became intense and was difficult to control. I also figured out where the hip pain is coming from, there's a hard lump where one of her drains was removed, I massaged it yesterday and it brought her almost instant relief. You wouldn't think something like that would cause her intense pain, but that's been much worse than her back pain. The office is closed for the holidays but I'm going to call Monday and tell them about it. It's not infected and is causing less pain so I think it will eventually diminish. If not for the problem with her hip, I think her recovery would have been much better.
Since she's been home, she's started to eat when she feels like it. Her pain is worse at night and in the mornings. I'm making her take pain meds in the middle of the night to try to control it. The best thing is that every day is a little better than the day before. I'm very happy with her surgical results, her chest is very uniform and she looks so nice when she stands up. It exceeded my expectations. I know there will be a day when she's fully recuperated and this will be a distant memory.
Thanks again to everyone who's been here to support us.
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