Check-in was at 6 am, and we left the house by 5:15 am. My mom came down and spent the night to get our son off to school while we both joined our daughter for this big day. DD (Dear Daughter) was so happy despite being woken up so early. She was waving, smiling, and saying hi to grandma. Nerves were high. Neither of us ate or slept much. Even if we were hungry at this point, we couldn’t eat in front of DD since she couldn’t eat. Not only would it be downright rude, but this girl becomes a piranha after your food once she sees you eat something without her.
We checked in and shortly after got brought back to her preparation room. She got the medicine called Versed. She got this one other time a couple of months ago when she got ear tubes placed. It helped ease some of our nerves and gave us a good laugh because on this medicine she gets loopy, giggly, and silly after about 15 minutes. This helped her have an easier time leaving us to go to surgery and get anesthesia.
The surgery was expected to last anywhere from 2 to 4 hours, and a whole slew of things could happen. The doctor has a checklist he goes through of 7 things to check, which will help him determine what all needs to be done. At first, I needed time to be in the room that we were left in to let out my emotions. This is a big deal, and there are several unknowns, so I think it’s okay that I took a bit of time to process this. Eventually, when I was ready, we headed out to the waiting room. During this time, we tried to grab some hospital coffee and eat some muffins our sweet neighbor made for us for this very day. We were getting text message updates throughout the surgery, which was really nice and helpful.
While many things can happen depending on the situation in this surgery, there are two outcomes we are anticipating overall. She will either need a closed reduction surgery or open reduction surgery. An open reduction means the doctor cuts the pelvis and essentially makes a hip socket for the femur to sit into. Then the body needs 6 weeks to heal in a Spica cast. This would be the 4-hour surgery and require a night in the hospital. A closed reduction means the femur can stay in the socket without any bone cutting, but it’ll need 12 weeks to heal and develop enough to stay in place as the hip bone grows a socket on its own over the next few years. This is less invasive and requires only about a 2-hour surgery, with being able to go home the same day.
About an hour and a half in, we got notification that our daughter only needed a closed reduction surgery and it was wrapping up. This is GREAT news! The doctor still had to make an incision to lengthen a tendon to be able to move the femur to the right spot, but other than that, the leg went right into place and stayed in place well. As they finished the surgery, we began to mentally prepare for her to be in the cast for 12 weeks rather than 6. But first, I was just mentally preparing to see my little baby in this big, monster cast. I keep thinking it will be absolutely horrifying to see, and it makes me really scared. It’s a huge, intimidating cast.
Seeing Her In The Spica Cast for the First Time
We were finally going to see her. When we got brought in, I could hear her crying and moaning. I immediately ran to the nurse holding her and took my DD (Dear Daughter) to hold her close. I only saw the cast for a quick moment, but I could feel more of the cast when holding her than her body. She wrapped her arms around me, and the cast partly wrapped her legs on my side, and she rested her head on my shoulders. They covered us with blankets. The next couple of hours as the anesthesia wore off were tough as she went in and out of napping and crying. I was allowed to nurse her if she wanted to. I’m aware our nursing journey is nearing its end, but I’m glad DD and I still mutually agreed to continue up to this point as it was a nice comfort for her as needed.
Eventually, we got to see the cast a bit more as she woke and became more alert. We got the tutorial on how to change her diaper even though I had already watched this process online. I didn’t learn anything I didn’t already know from the videos I watched to prepare, so it was nice to feel confident when changing her. In the meantime, we noticed her cast was far too high up her armpits, and she couldn’t put her arms comfortably down at her side. The doctor agreed and sent in someone to trim it down. This sucked. It was awful. They gave her some noise-canceling headphones, but she was screaming and crying. For a good reason. She went through all of this already today, could no longer move her body, and then we had to go through this. I know we’ll have to go through this when she gets the cast removed, but at least she won’t have had a procedure done right beforehand. But this experience was not fun. It was sheer torture.
When it was quiet. She was thirsty, and we were allowed to let her drink anything she wanted, and we came prepared. She guzzled down the water. Then we tried juice, and she chugged that. We got the okay to try some crackers, and she was enjoying those. She was feeling really good and not sick from the anesthesia. It was nice to see our girl being mostly alert again. The certified car seat nurse (can’t remember her official title) helped us appropriately fit her for the car seat. That was another thing that didn’t go easy or well… but I’ll let my husband discuss this one… Eventually, we relaxed and watched Bluey on TV while Dad got the car ready with the new car seat. We were ready to go home – FINALLY!"
Home at Last!
We got home, and shortly after, her brother arrived home from school. DD (Dear Daughter) adores her big brother, so it was nice for her to see him and for him to see her. As a five-year-old would, he had lots of questions, but he was also ready for his job as the big brother to comfort and entertain her. Things were going well overall.
Transition to Nighttime
For bedtime, we placed a wedge pillow and a boppy in her crib. She rested her head and shoulders on the wedge pillow, while her legs rested on the boppy. I set up a temporary bed next to her crib for me to sleep right beside her. It worked perfectly. However, our DD (Dear Daughter) is a belly sleeper, so this transition is going to be TOUGH. After several hours of sleep, she awoke and only stopped crying if she was lying on her belly on top of me as I lay on my back. I could tell I was no longer in my 20s, as my back was in some real pain when I woke up. It was a challenging night, waking up to administer meds every few hours, responding whenever she needed something, and allowing her to sleep on me for the last few hours in the morning.
For the pain medications overnight, I set alarms on my phone and created a chart to track meds. I color-coded the meds so I wouldn’t mess anything up in my sleepy haze in the middle of the night, as some meds couldn’t be taken within an hour of one another. The system worked great!
We did it – we made it to the morning!
Comments