2 more weeks!

I see my last post was while Jennah was in recovery from the surgery! So much for keeping up via the blog, eh? I know that many of you have put up with my bitching and whining over FB where I also have some crazy pictures of her in the car as well as the 5 “easy” steps to changing a diaper. As I’m sure you can understand, these past 4 weeks have been a bit hellish. We spent only 3 nights at Seattle Children’s and were released after forcing Jennah to have a bowel movement before the end of the day’s last rounds. I was ready to get out of there‼

The first week was absolutely terrible. She was on oxycodone (causes Jennah more constipation and nausea), acetaminophen, lorazepam (a muscle relaxer) and two types of stool softeners along with her usual seizure medications. I was drugging her with something every two hours around the clock. One of the worse things about her first week was the muscle spasms. They had cut through and lengthened 2 pairs of her muscles, the abductors and adductors, so they spasm as they begin to heal back together. The spasms looked exactly like her seizures. It was heart-wrenching not knowing if the pain had provoked her seizures or if they muscle spasms, or both. They were painful, no doubt, and she let us know.

By the end of the second week, after dozing off during both of my classes (luckily my professors both understood and pitied me), I was ready to throw in the towel and quit my studies. In the four years that I have spent earning this degree, through Jennah’s infancy and seizures, through the move to Dubai and back, I have never wanted to quit so badly. Through the support of my husband and classmates, I’ve come back around and am still expected to graduate in 2 weeks! Don’t get me started on how much these next two weeks of projects, papers and finals is going to suck …

So, it’s been 4 crazy weeks. I have not had more than 90 minutes of consecutive sleep in 4 weeks … well, aside from one night where Jennah had a bit of a cold and slept for 4 hours straight! I just hope she didn’t get any bed sores from that stretch of immobility! Anyway, I am tired. Exhausted, really. I don’t know if there is really a word to describe my physical being of exhaustion and mental stress. My complexion is shot, my hair is greasy, I have more eye wrinkles than my mom, and my pants are falling off.

BTW, did I mention that Jennah’s cast is to be removed on the day of my last final exam? No telling how she’s going to react to being free, but put into a brace in a different position. I expect she’ll be sore and have more muscle spasms. Nothing ever comes easy. Luckily, I just learned that hubby will be in town that week … phew!

On the bright side, Jennah is laughing and smiling again, despite her nasty-smelling cast. She really is such a trooper and just so incredibly sweet.

J has new hips!

We checked in at 7:15am and wiped Jennah down with an antimicrobial wipe before dressing her in a hospital gown. We met with 2 anesthesiologists and 1 of her orthopedic surgeons. Here is Jennah enjoying some last minutes of cuddling...

Finally, one of the anesthesiologists came by and told us it was time to give her our last hugs and say "see you later." I handed Jennah off to the Dr., right into her arms wrapped in her favorite purple blanket and Mr. Caterpillar. No tears ... yay for me!

We were issued one of the surgery pagers and proceeded down the corridor where we bumped into her main orthopedic surgeon, who looked like he had just finished breakfast. Good to know he'll be working on a full stomach! 

We were paged at 10:15 to learn that the surgery had begun. The sound of power tools whirr in my head. They expected the procedure to last 3 - 4 hours.

Just past 12:30, we were paged again and informed that they were just closing up and were beginning to cast. They expected her to be on the table for another hour.

At 1:30'ish, we were paged again and met with her surgeon. He detailed the procedure and showed us before and after x-rays. I never realized how terribly displaced Jennah's hips were until I saw her new, improved, bionic, no-way-getting-through-metal-detectors hips! Check it out ...

They've cut off some of her femur and stuck it into her pelvis. Hubby is yelling at me saying that this is complicated language. I assure him this is laymen terms! Anyway, let me know if you disagree ;)
OK, so there are chunks of her femur in her pelvis along with some allograft bone. You can also see the hardware in bright white. Not the oddly shaped big white thing that is supposed to protect the ovaries from radiation, but the plates, pins, and screws on both femurs. Stainless steel. Airport security will truly suck now!

It's nearly 4 PM now, and we still haven't seen little Jennah. She is still in recovery and we hope to see her soon  in her inpatient room where we will spend the next few days, inshallah.

Thank you all soooooo very much for the warm thoughts, messages, texts, FBs ... everything!!!
(((HUGS!!!)))