Friday, July 13, 2007

Surgery day = just another day



Nora had surgery yesterday. And the whole day turned out to be quite surprising for me. I expected pain, crying, whining, laying on the couch to watch movies and cartoons, asking for special food, just a general sense of feeling icky. Um - not so much.

We left for the hospital at 6:15am (a little late). Registered, got settled etc. One thing that kept bugging me was that in the course of preparing for surgery the anesthesiologist and every nurse that came to see her made sure to emphasize that "this isn't going to hurt" or "there's nothing to be scared of". I know they had very good intentions, but come on people - she wasn't cowering in a corner rocking back and forth from the fear of what was about to happen. She was tired and shy, but she was good. I don't think she really knew what was going to happen - regardless of my attempts to prepare her in the previous days. She wasn't scared - UNTIL YOU SHOWED UP AND SUGGESTED THAT SHE SHOULD BE.

Ahem. Okay - I've gotten that out of my system. Its a big pet peeve of mine.


So the doctor came in to say hi and give us an idea of the timing and so on - oh and to mark which arm he would be cutting open. At this point I asked if she could have a waterproof cast and the answer was an emphatic NO. In fact, there will be no water touching this arm for 3 weeks. No showers. No baths. No pool. And no trying to compromise with the doctor. Period. No. I was very excited about that news.

She left for surgery around 7:40. Cornbread and I spent about an hour in the waiting area chatting and probably annoying the heck out of the other waiting family members by spouting off all of our knowledge about the stock market, marketing for a business, etc. I mean - we know it all and everything, so I'm sure we weren't at all annoying. Besides that, he has quite a hard time keeping his voice below a normal talking voice so there was no chance that everyone in the room did NOT hear everything we were talking about.

We were summoned at about 8:45 to come back to see Nora. As we walked to her room she was being wheeled back in and was crying for me. Wait - yes, you read that correctly. She was crying. For me. I had to ask her to repeat herself and had to ask the nurses if she was delirious before I believed it was true. She wanted me - not daddy. Mommy. And she wanted a hug from mommy. My poor girl - she was miserable. I think she was disoriented from the anesthesia as well as in a lot of pain. But after a round of apple juice, cookies and codeine she was fast asleep and not complaining. Cornbread and I watched the president's news conference and made comments throughout that I'm sure would not have annoyed the people in the waiting area had they heard them - because yes, we know how to win the war and what he should do.

We were home by 11:30 and I figured Nora was going to go right in to the couch and lay down to watch a movie. Nope. She wanted to play with Nolan. He wasn't home so she opted to watch the roofers put new soffits on Nolan's house instead. The rest of the day was pleasant and she did really well. When it was time for her next dose of codeine she didn't want any. Her arm was feeling okay and she said no to my offer for more medicine. She ended up playing with Nolan when he got home and all was right with the world.

All in all yesterday was a shocker for me - but a good shocker. Once again I am amazed at the resilience and toughness of my little girl. She has been surprising me non-stop through this whole ordeal.




I tried to take pictures of her xrays. They're not fantastic, but I think you can get an idea of what was done.



Here is her arm pre-surgery. On the image on the left part of the screen you can see the bone chip/growth plate that is floating and needed to be pinned. It is the dark spot on the right side of her arm that is hanging out right about mid-joint level. You cannot see it as well in the image on the right - you can in the actual film, but not in the photo.
And here are the films from post-surgery. On the left image you can see the two pins that are pinning the piece back to the bone. On the right image you can see the pins - they appear more like a twist tie.
This is the entire film. The top is the pre-surgery images and the bottom is the post-surgery images. Not sure if you can click on the photo to make it larger.


4 comments:

kkoois 12:48 PM  

so glad to hear it went well. and even more glad to hear that nora handled it like a champ - what to go, nora!

Mommy Brain 5:44 PM  

Wow! I'm shocked how well it went too! I'm so glad it wasn't as traumatic as you thought...and when the kids are down...it's always mommy who they want-

Missy Eagen 12:47 PM  

Nora you are my hero! What a brave girl you are. :)

Carol 10:44 AM  

So glad to hear Nora's surgery went well and had a great afternoon! Not too much slows our kids down, huh?

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