What to expect while at hospital for surgery

[Gryffindor]

The surgery took 6 hours. Her surgeon said he was able to get her very straight. He did mention something about one of her lower vertebrae but said that he thought it was more likely do to the way she was laying. I'm still not sure. I'm giving him a couple of days before I sit down with him to get the specifics as the entire hospital has been very busy with surgeries.

Chey had the entire CCU to herself last night. And, she had 3 nurses to watch over her.

The anethesia (sorry, can't spell right now), did make her sick and she did have to vomit a couple of times. The first time they went to roll her over onto her side she broke into tears due to the pain. They're rotating her every 2 hours (right, center, left). She also has to use the breathing thing they blow into to help with their lung capacity and to help ward away pneumonia every 2 hours.

Today has been cranky day for all of us. She's not happy. I'm not happy and her father isn't happy. Lack of sleep will do that. Her dad has spent the last couple of nights at RMD on a nice comfy full sized bed. I've been stuck on what I'm now calling the "torture bed" since our arrival on Sunday. Whomever came up with the idea of making a chair that pulls out into a bed should be drawn and quartered!

Chey wasn't happy that they won't let her have her cell while she's in the CCU and decided that it was somehow my fault. But, thanks to everyone's posts here I knew to expect today to be rough.

The physical therapist came in twice and sat her up. The second time she was going to attempt standing but decided not to when she became very dizzy.

They have her on morphine for the pain. They also had 2 separate epidurals running all day yesterday and disconnected them this morning.

Earlier today she was starting to run a mild fever. The nurse said it was normal and was likely due to her laying down for so long and that it should not be because of the surgery/incision.

Right before I had to leave on the shuttle to RMD I checked in on her and her fever had risen to 102. They were giving her Tylenol and antibiotics in pill form. She's been able to drink clear fluids since this afternoon. They have been checking for stomach sounds and all sounds good according to the nurses. They said one of the milestones is being able to pass gas, which she has.

Hubby will be staying with her tonight to give me a break.

One question: I don't think I've read any other posts that mentioned a fever as being normal after surgery. Is this normal, especially one this high?

[CamsMomKelly]

It sounds like she is doing pretty good
I have stayed with my son thru all 3 of his previous surgeries on those pull out chairs LOL, I have found if u can get some extra blankets fold them up and put on top of the hard cushion, helps alot~
are they trying to get her to stand in the CCU??? is that like ICU? I didnt know they would do that until they got to there regular rooms?
My son did run fevers on two of his surgeries , scary but I was told that was normal too...

[Pooka1]

One question: I don't think I've read any other posts that mentioned a fever as being normal after surgery. Is this normal, especially one this high?

Great that you are on the other side! Congratulations!

I'm trying to remember but I think both my kids ran a fever. I don't remember how high. I think it is the morphine? Anyway, I doubt any surgical infection would manifest this early so you probably should not worry about that. Linda might know.

My kids were told blowing in the spirometer would lower the fever and it did as I recall. It's hard to remember so I hope this is right. It sounds familiar anyway.

Good luck.

[ddb]

My DD did have a fever - I too can't remember how high it went, but was told it was normal for that to happen.

So glad to hear all went well with surgery. I'll be thinking of you all - these first few days are hard. Getting some rest if you can will help.

Wish your DD a speedy recovery from us.

Dee

[Sherie]

Good to hear from you! I'm glad Chey made it through the surgery ok.

Sheena had a fever, I think it's completely normal, don't worry it will pass.

Get a good nights rest.

[Fingers Crossed]

I was SO GLAD to log in and see that everything went well with Cheyenne's surgery. My daughter ran a slight fever and was just VERY WARM the whole time she was in the hospital. She wanted the air conditioning CRANKED and I was glad I'd thought to bring some long-sleeved shirts, because she was freezing me out, practically (and I'm so sorry I forgot to mention this before, but hopefully you have some clothes to layer in case Cheyenne does this too?)

Hope you are feeling a little better today after a decent night's sleep. Don't forget to eat, drink to stay hydrated and take care of you, too. You are in for a long couple of weeks. Its almost like having a baby again, especially after you get home -- waking around the clock to give meds, etc. So rest up while you can -- take naps when she does, if at all possible . . . just like we were all supposed to do when our kids were babies.

Hang in there!

[Pooka1]

I was SO GLAD to log in and see that everything went well with Cheyenne's surgery. My daughter ran a slight fever and was just VERY WARM the whole time she was in the hospital. She wanted the air conditioning CRANKED and I was glad I'd thought to bring some long-sleeved shirts, because she was freezing me out, practically (and I'm so sorry I forgot to mention this before, but hopefully you have some clothes to layer in case Cheyenne does this too?)

YES! Same here. I was wearing a jacket for the last several days with my second kid. I can't remember how it was with the first.... too long ago.

[Gryffindor]

The CCU is the Critical Care Unit. There's now 2 other patients in there with her today. Another will be joining later this afternoon.

Surprisingly, it's really not cold in here. It's strange because the temp actually dropped down to 76 here (was 110 back home). But, it felt much warmer but less humid. My internal clock is completely off. It's an hour earlier here but I keep waking up at 5 a.m., which whould be 4 a.m. at home and something I never do. I'm usually up around 5:30-6.

Cheyenne's having a rough day today. Her fever is gone but she's having some pretty bad nausea. I thought they had taken her off of both epidurals and the morphine but they haven't. They're simply giving her less. But, they've started giving her Oxycontin by mouth. She gets it twice a day.

Right before I left her room her nurse gave her an injection through her IV of the equivalent of Valium so she's resting comfortably.

In about an hour the physical therapist is supposed to come in and see if they can get her to stand up. (Yes, they are doing this in the CCU).

She should be back in her patient room in about 2 days.

I'm going to go to medical records in a bit and see if I can get a disc of her pre-surgery x-rays along with the reports. I still need to spend some time with her surgeon to get more detailed info on exactly where they fused.

The nurses let me take some pics of her back yesterday while she was sitting up. Her hips and shoulders are now aligned and her rib hump is gone! Chey was very happy to see the pics.

I'll post more later on now that I know where I can find a computer that I can easily gain access to.

A Little Off Topic: When I first signed on to this computer and went to go to the forums the "Net Nanny" program blocked me saying it was due to "drug references". Lol.

[Gryffindor]

Finally was able to obtain her medical records through yesterday.

Here's the Operative Report: (I'm abbreviating where possible as I don't like this keyboard).

Indications for Procecure: Painful left lumbar curve measuring approx 50 degrees. MRI and CT scans done previously did not show any interaspinal pathology. She had a prominent right illac crest with a slight trunk shift to the left. Her shoulders were fairly level and she did have a right waist crease. It was felt therefore that she could benefit from the above-mentioned procedure.

Description of Procedure (I'm only giving highlights for now):
.....We started affixing our pedicle screws starting at L3 distally and moving proximally. At L1, L2 and L3 we placed 40 mm 5.5 screws with a polly screw at L3. AT T12 we placed 5.5 screws and T11 6.5 screws. At T10 on the right we placed a 5.5 screw and also at T8 and T6 on the right. On the left side we placed 5.5 screws at T9, T7 and T5. The screws were inserted in the usual fashion for the anatomical landmarks and positioning small k-wires for localization followed by using the pedicle finder, pedicle probe and tap to determine the appropriate length and size. At L2, initially clinically it looked like the screw on the right was going a little too medial and we reoriented to go a little more lateral but I think at this point in time there was a break in the lateral cortex. We then placed the L2 screw so that the head of the screw would line up nicely witn L1 and L3. We verified the position of the screws on AP and lateral views and all screws appeared to be in good position. On one of the AP views the right T10 screw appeared a little bit low but it was removed and probed carefully and felt to be in good position and reinserted.

[Gryffindor]

The facet joints were removed from distal to proximal apprx 3 at a time as we were moving up th espine with our construct. We then measured out the left-sided rod and contured it to a normal lumbar and throacic kyphosis and we used a stiff rod. The rod was then inserted and rotated 90 degrees which gave us essentially almost complete correction of the left lumbar scoliosis and excellent correction of the right compensatory thoracic scoliosis. We then inserted the right-sided rod which was contured in lumbar lordosis and thoracic kyphosis. We then took a long PA x-ray of the spine and it appeared that the spine was well balanced although the L3-L4 disk space semed to be opening up on the left side which was opposite to what it was doing preoperatively and this seemed to be tilting her to the right a little bit. We loosened the L3 screw on the right side and distracted betweekn L2-L3 slightly and we felt when she stood up that her righting reflex would bring her body over her pelvis and close down the L3-L4 disk space on the left side.....

It goes on to talk about inserting the epidural and how they closed her up.

She did have to have a transfusion of 1 unit of blood due to blood loss.

So it looks her fusion was T4-L3. The guess back in march was T 3-4 to L 3-4.

So, I'm a little concerned about the following sentences in this report:

At L2, initially clinically it looked like the screw on the right was going a little too medial and we reoriented to go a little more lateral but I think at this point in time there was a break in the lateral cortex.

although the L3-L4 disk space semed to be opening up on the left side which was opposite to what it was doing preoperatively and this seemed to be tilting her to the right a little bit. We loosened the L3 screw on the right side and distracted betweekn L2-L3 slightly and we felt when she stood up that her righting reflex would bring her body over her pelvis and close down the L3-L4 disk space on the left side.....

Can someone help explain these to me?

[ddb]

I think the surgeon will be best to explain your last question, but I'll tell you that my DD still has a little curve below her fusion. Our Dr did not want to fusion her lower then L-3 because she is young and it would really restrict motion. He said that she may resolve that curve more now that the above is fused. It's hardly noticable to most, but since I've been studying her x-rays for years I noticed it.

I'm so glad your all on this side. First few days after are hardest - they really do move them fast. DD was sitting up in a chair in PICU and she was in there less then 24 hrs.

The healing has started - good luck to you all for continued healing

Dee

[Gryffindor]

Cheyenne had a pretty rough night last night. They removed the ketamine IV and now have her on morphine (without the button for her to push), Oxycontin every 12 hours, Oxycodone and Valium.

Those of you that posted that your kids were very grumpy (putting it kindly), weren't kidding. Chey kept kicking hubby and I out of the CCU because she'd get upset with us. Apparently we "weren't helping her correctly".

Today she will be getting out of the CCU and back into her hospital room. She's really looking forward to getting out of there as it's packed with kids and staff.

Her nausea has subsided and she's been able to take pills and drink some sprite. They still haven't started her on soft solids yet.

They're getting ready to give her an enema right now. Her tummy is pretty distended. It's really noticeable considering how tiny she is. One nurse said she was going to feel much better after they do this.

Last night we received an automated message from her school's attendance office saying she's been absent. No kidding! At the 504 meeting I made it abundantly clear that we didn't want to hear a peep out of the attendance office and they promised we wouldn't. Yet, here we are again.

I called them again this morning and luckily did not get the rude clerk that runs the department but an assistant who was actually pretty nice. She apologized but sounded like this was the first she'd heard of our daughter being out of school.

I then called the school psychologist, the only one who was on our side during the 504 meeting, and let her know that her and my daughter's counselor were going to need to go into the Attendance office and remind them of what's going on.

I'll post more later today. I hope all of you are doing well and I can't tell you how appreciative I am to have found these forums. Without all of the information and advice everyone has provided, I'd be rather lost and completely having a nervous breakdown. Instead, because I knew/know what to expect, it's made this whole process much easier.

[Pooka1]

Those of you that posted that your kids were very grumpy (putting it kindly), weren't kidding. Chey kept kicking hubby and I out of the CCU because she'd get upset with us. Apparently we "weren't helping her correctly".

Going through this with two kids, I have come to learn that sometimes there is just no right answer or I am incapabe of finding it - one or the other. While this was certainly an issue in the hospital, I would say it crescendoed after they left the hospital and higher drug dosages for home and the lower drug dosages.

The important thing is to never show fear and hold your ground.

For my kids, it was a matter of only a few weeks before they turned the corner and became themselves again. That said, those few weeks were draining on everyone.

You will be a star. Good luck.

[CamsMomKelly]

ha ha I know how those crabby kids go, my son wasnt kicking me out he was chewing me out for "not doing things right" I would leave the room on my own to keep from exploding , when I would come back in he would be like where did you go! LOL IM sure it will get better soon and it will be nicer in a regular room...hang in there
DID they get her up walking? how did that go? Is her fever gone?

[Sherie]

Sheena was only in ICU one night. We were glad, there was no rest in there.

Her tummy was very distended too, looked like she was 6 months pregnant. They never did an enema but tried to give her a liquid laxative that she promptly threw up which caused her to wrench her back. That was bad. I think an enema is probably a better solution. And the laxative they prescribe for home use, Senekot, didn't seem to do any good. I don't remember exactly what I ended up doing but I saw someone else mention using Miralax OTC and had much better success.

Concerning the school, several weeks after we were home, I received a truancy notice from the school's police dept. I was so upset, after all the notifications and meetings, I couldn't believe they still had marked her absent. I cleared it up quickly but you just have to wonder