February 17, 2022 - Post Op Day #3

 And now for post op day #3 . . . 

Wow, 7 hours of sleep in my own bed at home definitely did my body some major good.  A shower was a total treat, but some time spent with our precious Gabi girl was the cherry on the top indeed!  Gabi, and even our little Connor puppy dog, ended up coming with Trevor last night to swap out with me at the hospital.  Sadly, Gabi couldn't come in, but she came to love on her mom.  Knowing how tired I was, Trev didn't want me to drive home alone.  Gabi had sweetly packed a little snack for me of things she knew I'd love . . . a Reese's peanut butter cereal bar, a yogurt cup, and a slice of de-licious banana chocolate chip cake that a dear friend had made and dropped off for us at home earlier that day!  Then, our not-so-little Gabi girl drove her mama home . . . her first time driving in the big city of Calgary, and she did fantastic!!!  Connor kept me awake with licks in the face the whole way home . . . he was more than a little excited to see me.  Yet still, after pulling into the drive way, Gabi was able to capture a picture of me dozing off in the passenger seat, along with a sleeping Connor, to send to her dad as proof of successful home delivery.  

Hope definitely had an improved night from the one before!  She was able to sleep once for 3 hours and another time for 2 1/2 hours!  So wonderful . . . praising God for answered prayers!!!  She has not had any more episodes of tightness in her chest with shortness of breath.  I think this helped her to actually stay asleep, as the night before, the episodes were the worst whenever she would be a minute past falling asleep.  She has continued to have nausea though, throughout today.  I would say that her pain is more managed, but we are still trying to work on that as she seems to be in pain still with the 0.25 mg dose of Hydromorphone or possibly super sleepy with the 0.5 mg dose.  Tonight she chose to try a 0.5 mg dose for the first time . . . she fell asleep almost immediately and has been soundly asleep since.  How exhausted her poor little body must be though, so this is very good for her, even though she missed supper.  Her supper tray is sitting here cold now.  She wanted to take the nausea and pain med before trying to eat . . . that was 2 1/2 hours ago!

Hope had a pretty good day with her daddio . . . of course, he's the coolest and funnest!!!  They watched a movie together.  They got to talk with Hope's nurse about our faith.  They ate some of the de-licious banana chocolate chip cake that our sweet friend made for us.  They saw her surgeon when he came to visit twice, and hear how happy he is with her surgery and recovery so far.  After each making guesses for what they thought it would be, they got the news that Hope's dropping hemoglobin had taken a turn from 80 yesterday up to 85 today!!!  To Hope's dismay, she lost the guessing competition (her Dad won with a guess of 84!), but to Hope's delight, she didn't need to have a blood transfusion today!!!  Praising God big time!!!

They also got to see her back incision when the dressing was changed (well, I guess that was more just her dad, because Hope can't really see nor can she see her back!).  Thankfully, they sent pictures to mom, because of course, enquiring minds want to know, especially "nurse mamas!"  They also got to go on a little outing . . . not so lovely as out of the hospital, but at least out of the room!  Hope had x-rays done of her back to check the hardware.  It was painful having the x-rays done, especially when the x-ray tech accidentally pushed on Hope's front incision when trying to help Trevor transfer her.  She politely and calmly said, "Excuse me, you're pushing on my incision.  I had surgery there."  Trev told her later that she was very polite in how she shared that.  He laughed when she replied, "Yeah well, I was screaming on the inside!  It hurt so bad, dad!"  Love her sense of humor and how she uses it even when in pain!  Earlier in the day, when a nurse was feeling around to find the pulses on her feet, Hope piped up, "Good luck!"  Ha ha!  Trevor said the x-ray staff were so very nice, and fantastic with Hope.  It has been so amazing, yet not surprising based on who our faithful God is, to see how He has met our fears of what the new world of adult health care would be like for Hope with such wonderful people and experiences . . . from terrific compassionate OR staff, to accommodating recovery room nurses pulling me in to be with Hope, to thoughtful doctors popping by to say hi, to kind nurses, to super nice and helpful x-ray staff!  We are thankful!!!

Hope just woke up after a 3 hour sleep!  Yeah!  I'm going to go try to find a place to heat up her supper, if possible.  So, I'll quickly finish this up, but will post later as I'm going to try to add pictures of her x-rays to show you the new hardware . . . it's quite the sight!

The photo on the right is the BEFORE picture that shows the break in the rod on the right side.  This was taken back in Feb 2021 and doesn't show the damage to the second rod yet.
The photo on the left is the AFTER picture that shows the two repaired rods, each with a cut away section and then the added on pieces, as well as the extra screws.
We have a bionic girl with all that metal!!!

This side view blows me away to see how big those screws are!
This view also shows the significant kyphosis or forward position of Hope's neck.  This will continue to be monitored by her spinal surgeon, and although it causes a lot of pain and makes swallowing more difficult, the surgeon feels the risks outweigh the benefits in this surgery at present.  That would only change if the vertebrae start to slip and pinch the spinal cord more significantly.  Right now there is pressure on the spinal cord, but it is not pinched.

Hope's biggest prayer request is that she would be able to go home tomorrow!  She just told me that she is still in pain, but she probably won't take more pain med yet anyways . . . so that's not stopping us.  The only hiccup in the home plan is the drain in her back incision.  It continues to drain a fair amount, too much to be able to pull it, and she can't go home until it is pulled.  She started off with about 150 ml of drainage per 8 hour shift post op day #1, then to 100 ml on day #2, and today at about 60 ml.  She needs to be under 30 ml for it to be pulled.  So, please pray that she can get there by tomorrow morning.  That's our hope, but we will trust the Lord's plan in this all.  He has been so very gracious to us every step of the way, and we praise Him!!!  I'm looking forward to my night with our sweet girlie, and praying for more sweet rest for her.  Thank you, dear ones, for walking Hope's journey with us!

You are loved!!!