Girl of steel … no more!

After my last post, where I had a bit of a panic attack, I was flooded with words of wisdom and support. Thank you, friends.

We went in for a pre-op visit the day before the surgery. It was a quick visit, but I was reassured that the procedure would be “simple” and was reminded that she had already gone through a total hip reconstruction that may well belittle any future procedures!

Since the procedure would be early the next day, I had to ship off big brother and big sister to homes of friends and family. We are so fortunate to have such a strong support system! I spent the evening cleaning and changing sheets in hopes of removing any possible sources of infection … crazy, I know. Then Jennah had the last shower that she would have for a couple of weeks, which was heart-breaking because she really, really, really LOVES her nightly showers! I gave her the ritual pre-surgery, antiseptic antimicrobial Hibiclens (4% w/v chlorhexidine gluconate) skin cleaner treatment, which made her smell like a super cuddly sterile glove.

I was totally wired and couldn’t sleep as I kept running times and tasks through my head:
11:00 PM – last medication dosage … give extra Miralax to offset post-anesthesia constipation; pack bag w/ extra clothes, formula, tubes
1:30 AM – switch to clear liquid, increase rate to 90 ml/hr; set alarm to 5:30 AM
5:30 AM – turn off feed; pack up feeding bag and leave by door; set alarm for 6:45 AM
6:45 AM – get up! don’t hit the snooze button! make coffee; make sure hubby is awake by 7:00 AM (my 4th child, right?)
7:30-7:45 AM – leave the house
8:30 AM – check-in time

I was rewarded the next morning with an on-time departure WITH coffee for the road … small wins make me happy!!

I always get to cruise straight to registration, with a quick smile to security and the greeters, thanks to my fancy Seattle Children’s volunteer badge.  I ditched poor hubby who had to get a badge … ha ha … small pleasures.

As we proceeded with registration, I had a spontaneous brain fart and recalled that our last visit there was with Jennah’s rehab doctor who performs Jennah’s Botox injections. We discussed the possibility of piggybacking a Botox treatment while Jennah was under general anesthesia. I went ahead and mentioned this to the nice girl doing our registration, and she put in a couple of calls to get Jennah’s rehab doctor paged. Of course, the doctors returns the page within seconds and as the message is relayed to the doctor, I hear through the phone, “Oh yeah! Totally!!”. Yes, rehab doctor is hip (no pun!) and young … and so very AWESOME! She has been with our beloved Seattle Children’s Hospital for less than a year, but she is going to be very successful here. The registration girl had a surprised, confused look on her face as she hung up and told us that the doctor wants to do the procedure and will “track us down”.

Anyway, fast forward … rehab/Botox doctor got the OK from Jennah’s orthopedic surgeon for the piggyback … yay! We wiped Jennah down with more antimicrobial wipe, and changed her into a gown. The consent forms were signed, and the doctors wrote their initials on Jennah’s pecs, hips, and inner thigh so they’d remember where they were supposed to cut/poke once they get in there. Finally, the went through the safety protocol checklist and wheeled Jennah away at 10:15 AM. The rehab doctor phoned at 10:35 AM to let us know Botox was done. Then we were paged just before 12:00 PM when the hip procedure was done. We were finally reunited with Jennah just after 1:00 PM and discharged and home by 3:00 PM. All in a day’s work … phew!

Everything went as smoothly as we could have hoped! She did have a bit of trouble waking up after anesthesia, but this is typical for her. The ortho surgeon also confirmed that we made the right decisionn to remove the hardware! Apparently, once they got in there, they saw that there was, indeed, some irritation and bursas forming around the brackets. Wow … so glad we didn’t leave them in for much longer. 

She’s doing really well today … such a trooper! She is noticeably swollen and seems tender to the touch, but her pain seems to be extremely well tolerated! The only real issue is that I can’t get her to take in enough formula since she keeps vomiting when I get to a certain rate. I think she’ll be ok in a couple of days. She can have her first shower in 4 days and resume therapy in 2 weeks!