Home for the Holidays

We've made it through the first four days and, miraculously, we were home for Thanksgiving! This is how it's gone:

D DAY: The surgery
The surgery went really well. We had pre-op for about two hours prior. Sophie was really a trooper. She also proved her superhuman strength by refusing to allow the nurses to take blood; it took three of us to hold her while the nurse did the veinapuncture! When the nurse anethesist came in, Sophie barely gave him a look; however, when his co-NA came in, she sat right up, smiled and tried to climb off my lap. She was smitten! He carried her back to the OR with her kissing him all the way. It capital C-U-T-E!

Two hours later, we got the call that Sophie was finished! They cast her legs and Chris met her in the recovery room. Luckily, they weren't that busy so I got to go in, too (usually there is a "one person per child" rule). She had a fantastic recovery: she drank two apple juices and ate half of a popsicle. We got up to the room and settled in just in time for dinner where she ate about half of her food. There was some itching (probably from the Morphine) and we solved that with some Benadryl. We were congratulating ourselves on a job well done BUT Isn't it always the case that just when you rest, a challenge needs to rear its ugly head?

At about 7:00, Sophie started having breakthrough seizures on a fairly regular basis. We finally got the script for an extra dose of seizure meds about an hour later, dosed her up, and got control of her seizures just in time for the vomiting to start. Sophie vomited all night long, about once an hour, through a dose of Zofran and there was minimal sleep to be had.

DAY 2
Tuesday dawned early with BP checks, vomiting and more. However, at 7:30, the vomiting finally stopped for the most part, leaving dry heaving in its wake. Fun. Zofran came calling again around 7:30 but the vomiting didn't stop completely until we discontinued the Morphine and switched to Tylenol with Codene. That seemed to dull the pain for the most part and left Sophie less drowsy and sick. Yay!!

Tuesday was a pretty good day: Sophie ate little but drank a lot, did well on the Tylenol, ran a low grade fever, napped periodically, and seemed pretty comfortable. We had some visitors, including her brother, Jack, who brought cards from his whole Kinder class. In Jack's words, "I asked my class for a favor. I asked them if they would make get well cards for Sophie. And they did!" They definitely brightened up her room. She loved all of her guests (Mr. Hank, Brooke B., Richard and Linda, Father Paul) but her favorite by far was her baby brother. : ) She began smiling this day, too, with the biggest smiles for Jack, Chi Chi, Mimi, and Poppa Taylor.We got a good bit of sleep Tuesday night, with a large chunk from 12-4:30 a.m.

DAY 3
Wednesday dawned at 4:30 with some blood draws to test CBCs. We had a repeat of the finger stick at 5:30 because the blood clotted. And again at 6:30. When the word came back at 7:00 that it clotted again, we elected to wait a little while and do a veinapuncture. Her temp spiked at 102; however, Tylenol got it under control. I did notice that Sophie had been busy chewing on her IV port which was a great sign that she was feeling better.

At 8:30, the doc came by and announced that Sophie could go home on Wednesday as long as the blood work came back looking good. YAY!! After a veinapuncture, we took the catheter out and got a urine sample for culture. That was traumatic to Sophie but I think she was relieved to get it out. At about 10:00, the nurse tech came by to run a BP and check her temp. Temp was down, BP was good, and she stayed and showed me how to bathe Soph. That is interesting - rolling a child onto her side in this cast is kind of surreal. Plus, I think that she is a little uncomforable, to say the least. Anyway, she did well and I think it made her feel better.

The blook work and urinalysis came back good and we were discharged! We got the IVs out of Sophie's hands (Whew! I wasn't sure if there would be anything left after all that chewing!) and changed her into her own nightgown. We were out!

The ride home was interesting. Ben drove me and Sophie in his Volvo - we figured that had the lowest seat and would be easiest to slide her into. She laid across the seat with her head in my lap. Once home, Chris carried her inside and we put her in my bed. She stayed there for the rest of the day, seeing her constituents as they came to her bedside. : )

She slept all night on Wednesday!

I'M GONNA EAT ON THANKSGIVING DAY
Thanksgiving dawned with a Jack visit at 7:00. Sophie was happy to have him wake her! She didn't really eat her breakfast but was happy to help Chi Chi with her bagel. We dosed her up with the Tylenol 3 and she took a good mid-morning nap. At lunchtime, after a nice snack, we gave her a sponge bath, changed her nightgown and got her into the wheelchair. What a difference that made! Social Sophie was able to be part of the action and even ate Thanksgiving dinner with us in the dining room. Around 6:00, we put her on her side on the couch and that pleased her. She was able to watch us play Quiddler and do calesthenics with Joan. She also enjoyed an entire Pumpkin Whoopie Pie - it weighs only about 5 pounds. I think she's going to weigh 97 pounds once we get this cast off!

Last night, she slept from 9:00 - 3:30. I dosed her again with Tylenol and she stayed awake a little while; she seemed to be uncomfortable. After getting back to sleep, she slept until 8:30. Hurray!

TODAY
This morning, we tried only Motrin to see how she does. So far, so good! She's in her wheelie and had breakfast in the kitchen with us. We're now watching Hercules on ABC Family and she is laughing at all the funny parts. She's back! : )

More to come! Thanks for all the well wishes, good thoughts, and prayers; food, company and love. God has been good, our friends are fantastic, and Sophie is an awesome kiddo!

Love to all.