Taken in the post op recovery unit where we ended up being for three hours! She woke up and opened her eyes and pulled her blanket (lovee) and new kitty up to her and went back to sleep and snored for three hours.
So backing up a bit, today has been long but ok. I hope you are all ok, all of us in the midwest are in the middle of a blizzard and I sit here perched up on the top of this gorgeous new $300 Mill hospital looking down on the winter wonderland below and this is the first moment since 6 pm that Sophie has been resting comfortably and I have had a moment to write to you. Her surgery and preop went off with out a hitch. Dr Mann said he was thinking about her all week trying to decide the best way to go for her expanders and was on the phone with the company that supplies the expanders and he presented us with what he recommended as the option of 4 expanders (1 large one across her back, 2 small on her stomach and 1 on her thigh) what we will likely do is inject two a day and alternate, so this means shots every day. I think when I processed this info later in private, I had a "moment" in the bathroom and broke down and sobbed. I can't tell you how I used to live for those days when we didn't have to do shots! But I reminded myself all week Craig and I had been praying for Dr. Mann's wisdom and the fact that he had been trying to decide what to do all week and came up with this idea and I have faith in God's leading of this awesome Dr he has blessed us with. The cutest preop moment Sophie looked up and said "Hi Dokker Mann" when we were meeting with him before surgery. So adorable!
Like I said when she got out of surgery she slept the whole time we were in recovery and they had trouble finding us a room, the first one they had they then found out the whole floor had a respiratory flu so thankfully they decided not to send us to that floor! Around 5 pm I started to get a bad headache. My sister who had come to the hospital and sat with us for several hours this afternoon had brought us cookies and I ate a cookie and took some excedrin. Well little did I know at that point it would be 8:15 before I got dinner but by the grace of God my headache went away and I was completely sustained by that cookie (thanks God and Ange!).
When we got up to our room she started to wake up in a lot of pain and disoriented and was crying out for things. See I thought it would be so convienent now that she can talk and tell us whats wrong or what she wants. The problem comes when she has unreasonable requests. So she started saying "toy, toy, play toy!" over and over, crying, sobbing for a toy. I knew instantly, when they gave her the medicine to make her go to sleep before surgery that she was asking for the toy she had been playing with at that time. We tried other toys, not good enough so Craig ended up going down to surgery and getting the same toy and just seeing it calmed her down. But clearly she didn't have good pain control for a long time. At one point it was just she and I in the room and she looked at me and said "Go home?" and I said "Honey we can't go home, we have to stay here where they can take good care of your boo-boos" "Why Momma?" she cried. And then I cried. I didn't realize hearing her tell me what she wanted would make me so sad. So they had been having trouble with pain control, and they wanted her to eat something before giving her more meds and she was turning down everything we offered and suddenly after I asked her 50 questions and the answer was "No" to all 50 when I said "would you like to sit up" I finally got a "Yes", and when we brought out the cinnamon teddy grahams she looked twice at them and started putting them in her mouth and ate over a dozen! Praise the Lord! Then she got more meds and is sleeping peacefully now finally. The Dr thinks her leg may be the most painful because it is a new area and it indeed seems pretty unhappy when we move it while trying to reposition it.
So I have given you lots of details, lots of options for prayers. Basically pain control, good nights sleep, and a perkier Sophie in the morning! Thanks you all for your prayers, you can't imagine how I felt them all day, even when things are bad, I feel them, I feel God, and I feel all of you, my family and friends here with me! Amanda
