Friday, October 12, 2012

surgery update

It has been a week since the kids had surgery on their hands.  All in all it went pretty well.  We got up early to get to Dallas in plenty of time.  There was lots of waiting around for all the nurses and doctors to be ready and have everything assembled.  Elizabeth was up first and not happy about letting any one other than Jeff or I do anything to her.  So we gave her the "goofy juice" or I tried to at least.  It doesn't taste very good and neither of the children were very cooperative when we tried to dose them up.   Soon enough it was time for Elizabeth to go off to surgery.  When I scheduled the surgeries I was under the assumption that Jason would be in an almost concurrent surgery, but we found out that Jason wouldn't be taken back until after Elizabeth was done.  It was a nice distraction to entertain Jason instead of constantly worrying about how Elizabeth was doing. 

After about 2 hours it was time to go back up to the recovery area to wait for Elizabeth to come back.  As she slept we got Jason ready to go back.  Although neither of the children got the full dose of the "goofy juice" they didn't give us any trouble leaving with the doctors.  Elizabeth was still sleeping after Jason was left so the nurses said they would call us and we could run down and grab lunch.  While we were eating Elizabeth woke up and I rushed back to her.  We cuddled her a lot and gave her juice.  She was pretty fussy and very angry that she couldn't use her arm, but she didn't seem to be in much pain. 

Soon enough Jason was back with us and he woke up on the way back to recovery.  Jason has never been very happy when he wakes up, but in a new place with lots of strange things going on, he was not a happy camper.  I got him some juice and cuddled him and he was alright.  The nurses needed to be sure he was ok for a half an hour after surgery and he was so we loaded the kids into the car to head home.  Thankfully they both fell asleep on the way home.

2012_10_ 028 by RachSal
That first afternoon we spent lots of time cuddling and we have laid low more this week than normal.  The kids are mostly weaned off of any medicine and sleeping well at night, or at least as well as they were before casts.  Jason is taking really well to the cast.  I think it helps that he understands what is going on because he has been through it before.  Elizabeth is often frustrated because she can't hold everything she wants to.  I have even banded "Dolly" to her cast before, but she didn't like that either.
2012_10_ 034 by RachSal

2012_10_ 036 by RachSal
When we were going in I thought they would need to have the casts on for 6 weeks, but I must have misremembered because they are getting the casts off in a little less than 4 weeks!  It happens to fall on Halloween and I don't think I have looked forward to a Halloween this much since I was little!  Hopefully we will find time to do the cast removal, get back from Dallas, get suited up and go trick or treating because Jason is already talking about it and insisted on practicing using our bedroom doors the other day.
2012_10_ 030 by RachSal

 
Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers for the kiddos as we go through this.  The other day in the store an older gentleman noticed Elizabeth's cast and after I explained that she had surgery and that she was born with her hands that way, he asked if it was serious.  I am so thankful that in the grand scheme of things this really isn't serious.  It isn't a problem with a major organ like the heart or brain.  I just read a blog about a classmate who has breast cancer and realized that these issues that we are dealing with are miniscule compared to what her family is battling!  I thank God every day that my family is generally healthy and I will take my two gimped babies any day of the week and twice on Sunday.  It doesn't hurt that they are so adorable either!

2012_10_ 035 by RachSal
2012_10_ 037 by RachSal

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