If I had just had surgery, on my mouth on Tuesday, I honestly think I would still be in the hospital begging for morphine! It honestly hurts me to see the inside of her mouth; the stitches, the gum line pulled away from her teeth, the swelling...ouch!! But, not our little Anna. She is one fierce fighter. Anna doesn't let anything keep her down for long - I have called her my little energizer bunny!
We arrived at Jewish Hospital in Louisville at 6:00 am...yeah, that's 5:00 am my time! Anna was in a good mood and hadn't begged for any food, which is not typical of her normal routine. They took us back around 6:30 to do the pre-op questioning, weighing, temp, etc. One of the nurses was giving Anna stickers, crayons, coloring books to pass the time. The nurse picked out Dora and Piglet which Anna could have cared less about. Then I noticed a Spiderman roll of stickers. I showed Anna and she of course started her Spiderman chanting. She clung to her sticker until she fell asleep on my chest. The ENT physician and her plastic surgeon both came in to see us before they took her back around 7:20. She was asleep when the nurse took her from me. She raised her head and laid it back on the nurses shoulder. She never cried or fussed...thank you God! If she had started crying, it would have been bad on all of us.
The ENT came out around 7:50 to tell us he was done and the tubes went in fine. The palatoplasty was beginning and should last around 2 hours. At 8:40 her surgeon came out and told us he was finished. He said that Anna was awake and very upset, but they were giving her something to make her rest. I of course wanted to go to the Recovery Room then, but I knew I couldn't. Around 9:15, they told me I could come back. As I walked into the room, I could hear her. The patients in the "step-down" recovery area were all looking at me with this, "oh, that poor baby" look on their faces. As I rounded the corner to go into the recovery area, she was fighting a nurse trying to hold her. There were about 5 nurses in the area trying to move the bed out of the way, putting a reclining chair in the area for me and trying to console Anna. She had the same recovery nurse as last time, who knew me immediately as I entered the room. She told Anna, "here's momma, here's your momma."
Anna was bleeding some, but not as much as last time. Her face was pretty swollen and her lips were cracked at the corners. Her eyes were blank and she looked very confused. I tried to talk to her, but she was so mad at the arm restraints, the confusion and I am certain the pain. They gave her another dose of IV pain medication and it wasn't long until she was sleep on my chest. After about 45 minutes, they let Rodney come back to sit with us.
When he walked in, he started trying to talk to her. She in a pitiful little voice said, "button". Button is one of her favorite words. Rodney nodded and answered back, "button," as he pointed to the button on his shirt. He sat down and she then said, "necklace." My husband is not a terribly sentimental guy. But, when Carter was about 4 years old, made him a necklace. It is not pretty but Rodney wears it everyday without fail. It is just a black cord with six green beads and 1 yellow bead. It is one of the funny things about Rodney that makes me laugh at him but also makes me love him. It does not match his personality or his clothes for that matter. But he is faithful in wearing it. One day, he had forgotten to put it on after his shower. He came out of the bathroom and Jacob asked him where his necklace was. I think it means a lot to the boys, mainly Carter and Jacob that he wears it. Anna has since day 1 been fascinated with Rodney's necklace. When she said, "necklace" in the Recovery Room, he pulled it out from under his shirt, she raised her head and he put it on her. She then laid her head back on my chest and drifted off to sleep. She still has it on.
They clipped the tongue string, which was not a pleasant experience for anyone. During her very upset episode, she had managed to swallow the string. I had to flick the string that was at the back of her tongue where the nurse could get the scissors in to clip it. Then when she pulled the string, she had swallowed about a 10 inch string down her throat....the whole thing just wore her out. She quickly fell back asleep, hair soaked with sweat and "snubbing" during her sleep. You just want to cry for her because I am sure she just doesn't understand what has happened and why we are torturing her. Hopefully, she won't remember....she still loves me, so I guess she doesn't.
Anna's surgeon had a certain floor that he wanted Anna on, so we had to wait until someone was discharged on that floor and the room was cleaned. We were in recovery for 5 hours! It was a long time. The staff made us as comfortable as possible, but it just wasn't very private and there were other patients, who had just had surgery and I am sure feeling bad themselves wishing that the crying baby would stop. No one was rude to us at all, in fact they were all very sympathetic, but I am sure they wished their recovery period was a little more quiet.
After we got to the room, Anna and I laid in the bed and she rested pretty good beside of me as long as I was touching her. She would throw her hand up on my face or on my arm just to make sure I was still there. She wasn't interested in drinking anything and mainly wanted to sleep....so Anna slept the majority of the afternoon.
After being with Momma while groggy and grumpy, Anna is ready to play with Daddy when she is starting to feel "energized"! Notice the black cord necklace ;-)
Just 12 hours after surgery, Anna is willing to give us a sweet smile!
She rested really, really good during the night. Only waking up a few times. We kept the pain meds coming because I did not want to be playing "catch up" on pain management. If I had just had surgery, I wouldn't want to start hurting before I got my next dose. They were really good about bringing her what she needed, but not pestering. At times the night nurse would just walk to the end of the bed, ask me if everything was okay and leave. They didn't come in and check her BP every hour because she went nuts when they came rolling in the room with the BP & temp machine.
She woke up Wednesday morning in a really good mood and hungry. She ate a whole container of yogurt, half a container of chocolate pudding, drank some milk and a little bit of juice. We were discharged at 1:00 pm and headed home. We had to stop at the grocery to pick up some PediaSure and some foods that Anna could eat. We go back in one week for a post-op visit and to see if she will be ready for solid foods.
We just love this girl so much. How can you not just want to hug this sweet baby?
Last night, Anna ate some baby food (she likes it for some reason?!?!), pudding and drank some PediaSure. She slept all night and woke up this morning ready to go. She has ate 2 packets of grits...my little southern belle...PediaSure and now on a cup of milk. Anna is now running...let me repeat that, running around the house with a light saber! The swelling in her face is minimal now, her eyes aren't swollen at all now and her lips are looking pretty close to normal now. She isn't drooling very much at all and the bleeding is pretty non-existent.
This morning with a little PediaSure drool on Anna's dress & chocolate donuts on Parker's mouth, they were happy to be together again.
Anna has proven once again to be very strong. We are surprised how well she handles every obstacle that is thrown her way. She is determined and strong willed. And she does all this while being just down right gorgeous! We are so proud of our little girl and so thankful that her surgery was successful.
Happy to be home with a healthy little girl & sending love to Elli,
Rodney, Marcy, Carter, Jacob, Parker & Anna
