We have a surgery date!

[Cheryl M]

Laura,

Best wishes and prayers for a successful surgery. We found that the day after surgery wasn't so bad but the next 3 were tough. She did have good moments but there were many that were very stressful on us and worse on her. She had surgery on Monday, and Wednesday they took out the catheter, pulled off the dressing, removed her incision drain, removed an IV (she had several), etc. Wednesday was awful. They also took her off the morphine pump, on Wednesday, I think, and it was hard to switch to oral medication and get the right dosage to handle the pain. Luckily there were only a few times that the pain got really bad and they gave her a morphine through her IV immediately and within 10 or 15 minutes, she settled down.

Now that we are at home the pain is pretty much under control but she can tell when the 4 hours is up....she starts asking "is it time?" I set an alarm and get up in the night every 4 hours to give her medicine, even if she's not awake, I wake her up. Her appetite is returning, although the pain medication makes her a little nauseous. She asked for a Chick-fil-A sandwich last night and we ran out and got her one. She ate more than half. She read a magazine this morning and is finally watching a little TV.

She didn't want any sounds at the hospital. She didn't want us to talk to her or to each other and our cell phones rang constantly. We finally silenced them and would go in the hall to talk to everybody. She requested no visitors so we just talked with all her visitors in the hall. We loved having people come by but she just wasn't up to it. Our nurse the first two nights was awesome and she put a note on the door saying 10 minute limit on all visits. She said she really shouldn't have visitors at all given the seriousness of this surgery so we just got the word out that it's better to wait until she's up for it plus she didn't even want to see her best friends and still hasn't said they could come yet.

One more thing, she had some of the wildest dreams while on morphine and we started writing them down. She now laughs so hard when we tell her about them.

Sorry I rambled so long. Prayers to your daughter and her family. This forum has been great and can usually answer any question you have.

Cheryl

[dancermom]

Hi Ann and Cheryl. We are home from the hospital today. We ended up renting a hospital bed for our home as it seems to help her get more comfortable as she can raise and lower herself and let her back feel supported. Elizabeth worked with a physical therapist on Thursday and it hurt so much to see her in so much pain trying to sit up and then take those first steps. She is using a walker to help balance herself and give her some stability. Her right hip is almost more painful than her back as that is where he took the bone graph.

This has been a tiring and emotionally draining experience and it feels weird to be back home - weird but good. Elizabeth is on Loritabs every 4-6 hrs., oxycotin 2x a day, and Valium 2x a day if needed. We have to be sure to wake her if she goes over the time to get her Loritabs as we found out that it is much harder to get the pain under control once it gets bad.

It feels good to read and find out about how Briann and Elizabeth are also doing. The girls have been through so much. I hope each family can begin to catch up on their rest and we all can start the road to healing with our girls.

Connie

[Laura P]

Thank You

Cheryl, You did not ramble. I am really wanting to know everything. I am a nurse and of course investigating everything I can. I worked womens surgery for a while so I know a little about surgery but not ortho. Of course it is diff. when it is your child.

My daughters biggest worry is not being with her friends. It is good to hear about how your daughter felt about visitors. I told her we would have a open door policy as long as she felt like having company. We will be 2 hours away for the surgery so probably will not have a lot of company until we get home. I also figure with it being Christmas alot of her friends will be busy until after the holiday. I feel like she will not feel like having visitors for a while but I will leave it up to her. Also, it sounds like youall have a sense of humor and we have alot of that around here. My husband keeps us laughing alot.

Also, the other thing is my mom just passed away in Sept. from a staff infection she got after small bowel resection. So I plan on being pretty anal about hand washing especially the staff. Keep the info coming we are on 11 day count down. I am real tearful and I hate it. My good friend put her on the prayer list this morning in class which I was going to do next week and I just started crying. No reason just tearful. I think the reality of it is starting to sink in plus a little fearful after just going through a bad experience with my mom. Thank for the prayers. I will keep everyone on here in my thoughts and prayers as well. Glad youall have made good progress.


Laura

[nikyergen]

Laura, My 17 year old daughter had surgery 8 months ago. It was pretty hard to see and active athletic kid go through surgery. It has played its toll on her. She didn't like being slowed down for so long. But, if you asked would she do it over again. Today, she would tell you yes. She, like the other girls, had a few rough days in the hospital, but improved much better at home. She slept on the couch the first two nights home, her choice of where she wanted to sleep, and then she moved to her bed. I would have to help her sit up and stand up. But, like you had training in this and is wasn't difficult to do. For some reason the magic number is three. Three weeks you will see a dramatic change and three months you will see a dramatic change. I laughed when I was told that, but the person that told me that was right.

Your daughter sounds like a social butterfly like my daughter. We allowed her friends to come see her as soon as she was ready for them, which only took about one day home from the hospital. She was anxious to have someone for company besides family. I guess we kind of got old after a fashion. You will appreciate your daughters friends when she gets home. A lot of Crystal's friends were willing to come over and sit with her, because she was afraid to be alone for a while, while I went out to ride my colts and do things outside. It also gave me a break away from things.

I can certainly understand the fear of a staff infection, especially after loosing your mom. It is okay to be anal about the hand washing. I did find that they actually didn't really even handle Crystals incision site until it was time to go home. They would turn her to see that it wasn't oozing through the bandage. They redressed it once while she was in the hospital and then took the dressing off before we home. All that was left on her incision were steri-strips and they come off by themselves, eventually.

Since surgery is just before Christmas, you may want to do a family gathering for Christmas before surgery. If she comes home for Christmas, she probably won't be up to the hurrah of Christmas. But, keep her gifts from you and dad until Christmas, so she doesn't feel left out.

You will feel like you are on a marathon and it is survival of the fittest. Be sure that you get plenty of rest for yourself. If you have a question, don't be afraid to call the surgeons nurse. She can talk to the surgeon and give you the best answers.

I'll keep you in my prayers.

To all the rest, it is good to hear everyone is arriving at home safely. Things will start getting better now. Nothing like being home to heal.

Love & prayers,
Nikki

[Laura P]

Count Down

Nikki,

As you can tell sleepless nights. Thanks for the post. Glad to hear your daugher wanted her friends to come by. My daughter loves people and she cannot imagine not wanting to see her friends. Ran into her 5th grade teacher the other day and she had this surgery two years ago. She knows how outgoing Jamie is and said to use it to her advantage. Have her friends come by and walk her around the house to help build her strength. I thought that was a good idea. She had some of her teacher friends come by every afternoon and they walked with her. This gave her motivation.

Mom didn't get her staff infection in the incision it was in her IV. She had a triple lumen which is basically one catheter with three ports and two of the three ports grew out staff. So this was induced by not cleaning before pushing meds or handing new bags for her feeding. So I wasn't concerned as much with the incision sight as the IV. Mom was in the hospital for 9 weeks starting July 22 and I went up there everyday ( I missed a couple) but of course couldn't stay 24 hours and I don't remember the nurses washing their hands except when they left the room. Hind sight is so good isn't it. Needless to say her dad and I will be with her 24/7 taking turns. She told me tonight she was going to let me worry about the nursing stuff like PCA and pain med. 30 min before PT and certain things like that. She is funny I told her she would probably remember, but of course I told her she would have the best nurse. HA

We have already had family thing. Since my mom died we just have very little family left. We celebrated with my grandfather and Aunts thanksgiving and my mother n law will be here helping until we get home from hospital. So when she leaves it is just us 4. The surgery has helped change our routine without dwelling on changes since my mom isn't here. God works in mysterious ways and this is certainly keeping me busy. The good thing about all of this is I will be ready for x-mas by Dec. 16. Ha that is a first.

Thanks again for the encouragement we will be fine just good to hear what to expect. My daughter has a great attitude.

Laura P

[Jane1832]

A w e s o m e !

[nikyergen]

To All,
How are all the new recoveries? I hope you are all doing well. You will really feel much better at the end of your third week and then a huge difference at the end of three months. Hang in there. You pain levels will start reducing soon. The important thing is to get up and walk around carefully. Don't sit or lay all day, that will make recovery a lot harder. If you are having problems with the back of the toilet seat, my daughter did, put a pillow between your back and the back of the toilet. It really made a difference. Work on just getting comfortable with your limits. It is difficult when the doctor says not twisting, bending, or lifting. We've been at this for almost 9 months post-op now. It does get easier as you go along.

Laura P, How are you doing? Keeping busy, I am sure, preparing for Christmas and surgery. Keep yourself busy and try to get some rest. You will be on the other side soon. Being on the other side is much easier than it may seem. Don't be afraid to spoil yourself with some quiet time too. You may feel you don't have time, but it is important. My quiet time is on the back of my favorite horse, but not everyone enjoys something like that.

'til later,
Nikki

[KRIS ATKINSON]

Nikki, you are making me envious! I love to ride horses, but not being a farm girl, I don't have one to ride! Can you all tell that today I am trying NOT to do anything that involves getting off my, ok, getting on my feet?! My excuse: plantar fasciitis: muscle problem in my foot. It hurst to walk on it. I should be folding laundry or analyzing the books, but surfing the net is much more fun! Riding a horse would be BETTER YET!!! But then, I have to wait for Erica to get off her restrictions anyway since I won't do what she can't do for now. If she were a seasoned rider, I suppose the doctor might let her ride horses soon, but since we are both novices, I won't even ask the doctor. Besides, it requires a trip to a place to ride on a trail (boring) for an hour for a chunk of $$$. Wish I had my own on my 1.1 acre of land!!!! Kris

[Cheryl M]

Laura,
We had a huge support group from our church who prayed for us. Although there were many anxious moments and days, I was unusually calm the week before surgery. The day of surgery I was the same.....I did have anxious moments but all in all I was calmer than I ever would have imagined. God is good! I am by nature a worrier and there was definitely something other than myself keeping me calm. I finally just said "God she's yours, she's in your hands." And what better hands to be in.

Kris, my mom has the same problem with her foot. It's been giving her a fit since sometime in the summer. She just purchased $400 insoles for her shoes....she nearly died at the cost and is hoping they will work. She didn't have much choice.

Briann is typing on the computer....spinekids, I think. She wanted to go upstairs and she zipped right up there. Everyday is tons better than the day before. She's a little pale as I'm sure her iron is still low but Dr. didn't want her on iron until her bowels were straight. I grilled a steak for lunch with a spinach salad. Not really what she wanted but at least it's iron. Thank the lord her appetite is coming back. She didn't eat that much at lunch but when we get her what she's craving, she eats good. I'm so glad to be on the other side. If we can get her tummy straightened out and her iron up we will be in good shape. Pain is under control as of right now.

Would love to hear from the other Elizabeth's.

Cheryl

[KRIS ATKINSON]

Cheryl, I'm probably the age of your mother (that makes me feel young!??). My insurance somehow paid the whole amount for my orthopaedic shoe inserts which were almost $1,000. Now my foot is wrapped and I wear a special foot massage thing that moves air around as I walk. Glad Briann is doing so well!!! Kris

[Laura P]

Back from Pre-Op tests

Hello to all,

Hope everyone is recovering well. We are scheduled for a posterior T-2 to L-1 fusion. So now we know what to expect. Everything went good today just a long day. Our prayers are with everyone and look forward to being on the other side with everyone else.

Laura P

[nikyergen]

Kris, Don't mean to make you envious. It has its down fall. Feeding and packing buckets of water twice a day, clean stalls, repairing fence, hauling hay, continuous everyday care, and not being able to just take off for a weekend. It's worse than having kids, they are harder to get a weekend babysitter for.

Now, ladies, lets not show our age. Some of us got started a little late in life raising children. Don't you wish we weren't falling apart so soon. Hopefully, we'll all have our kids past the scoliosis and kyphosis surgeries before we fall apart.

Anyhow, it's good to hear all of the young people are doing so well. Keep up the good work moms. We will keep our prayers for you on the other side and those of you anxious to be on the other side. It will be here soon.

'til later,
Nikki

[KRIS ATKINSON]

Nikki, I know what you mean. That's what I tell my kids when they want more animals, especially horses. I would drop everything to get more animals if only my kids would listen better! Then I wouldn't have to do my kids' chores and the animal care! Enjoy your horses and all! Also, enjoy the snow, and you can keep that!!! I'm fine to drive to the mountains about 3-4 hours away to go skiing, next year after our post-op period ends. Then I don't have to drive through it daily, like I used to when I lived in Cleveland, Ohio. Kris

[dancermom]

Hi Cheryl, Ann, and many others who have been so supportive. We have an appt. this morning at 11:15 to see the orthopedic dr. for him to check how Elizabeth is doing. We are not doing so great right now. Elizabeth's back keeps spasming and she just gets very emotional and seems unable to handle what to do to help herself feel better. She is still taking Lortabs every 4-5 hrs. and is on Valium twice a day to just help her muscles and mind relax. We are not in a good place yet, but I do have hope it is coming.

She can't find a comfortable place to sit for long and her hip is giving her a great deal of trouble with walking. It is very swollen and turning purple and yellow from the bruising.

We also had a great deal of prayer support and people from our church who have been to the hospital and bringing meals to us this week. We have tons of flowers and balloons that were brought to the hospital and to our home that really cheer Elizabeth up, but she just hasn't felt good enough to really enjoy being back home too much yet.

Glad to hear that Briann is doing so well. Elizabeth still hasn't had a bowel movement and I am getting concerned. She is eating fruit and I gave her a stool softener yesterday. I will try again today as that will help her feel much better I think.

Take care everyone. This is hard right now as I have never seen anyone in this much pain, especially someone I love so deeply. We have good hours and some good times, but hopefully that will increase each day.

Connie

[Cheryl M]

Connie,
They would not release Briann from the hospital until she had a bowel movement. They gave her Milk of Magnesia. She hasn't had one since but they told me to give her 100 mg of Colace 3x a day and milk of mag if necessary. I guess the pain killers relax everything. She still has some rough times but is getting up and walking a lot now and sleeping a lot in between. She actually watched a full movie today on the couch and talked on spinekids briefly yesterday. Our Dr. used bone from a cadaver so she doesn't have the hip pain. I have heard that is really bad.

Hope everyday continues to be tons better than the last.

Cheryl