#kelty surgery

[sis2buds-blog]

Going Home!

After six days, Kelty is headed home. Yayy! She was able to get up and around on her crutches a bit and did some serious hard work on the stairs. She is wiped out (has been asleep since we got back an hour ago), but is happy to be getting out of here. We LOVE Seattle Children's Hospital and she will forever call this "her hospital", but we are hoping to never have another overnight stay here. Our best case is that we get way down the road into adulthood before she is in so much pain again that she needs to then finally have hip replacements. I have no idea when that might be, but I do know that our girl has big plans for the next 5-10 years, so there is no time to do this again any time soon. :)

We will be home in a couple of hours and will be open for visitors as soon as tomorrow. Kelty will be stuck in the house for a couple of weeks, so please feel free to call, Facetime/Google Hangout, come say hi or watch a Christmas movie or two with her. She is missing a lot at school these days and is very sad to not be there when so much fun is happening. She could use some holiday cheer.

My posts will slow down now, but thank you again to all who have prayed, sent love and hugs, and happy healing thoughts. Feel free to send me or Dean a note to check in if you go through any kind of "Kelty update" withdrawals. 

[sis2buds-blog]

Last Day?

Still here (Day 5 post-op), but we are hopeful. Kelty was able to get out of bed four times yesterday to sit, she ate a bit more and has successfully transitioned to oral meds. She said she had a good night's sleep (no baby roommate helps), only waking up to take medicine. I don't know when PT will get here, but her goal is to go home today, so she needs to get on the crutches and handle some stairs (her bedroom is upstairs at home). Getting ready for some hard work.

[sis2buds-blog]

Two Steps Forward, One Step Back

We had high hopes yesterday, but things didn't turn out as we'd planned. Kelty started the day feeling okay, but was still "hooked up". She still had her epidural drip, catheter and IV, getting liquids, pain medication and muscle relaxant through those. The first round of muscle relaxant (to combat the twinging spasms in the surgical area) seemed to work fine, but the second round set us back a bit. Turns out Ativan/Lorezepam brings on hallucinations in our girl. She was convinced she was being taken on roller coasters over and over again by little people who would not let her stop, they were coming for me, and she was not liking it at all. She was talking through all of this, as well as crying and asking for my help. She then also thought there was an earthquake and was holding on to the sides of her bed, asking if everyone was okay when she thought it was over. This went on for 2-3 hours and she was not sleeping at all. The doctors were pretty sure it was the Ativan, but we had to let it run its course. The hallucinations stopped, she slept and we had confirmed the hypothesis. Unfortunately, she also lost half the day battling that instead of eating, getting up and starting to move. All tubes other than the IV got taken out, so we did make that progress. P.T. came in and managed to get her in a wheelchair, but it was hard, traumatic and caused her to be nauseous, hurting and cranky. We turned around and she went right back to bed. Still haven't eaten more than a few crackers, popsicles and bites of dad's potato chowder (did you know Starbucks has soup??), so hoping to get more food down today.

The doctors are suggesting a possible discharge this evening, but she has to have the pain managed (close), be eating and drinking (close) and cleared by P.T. (who comes at 2:30), so I'm not convinced that will happen. She does know she will rest better at home, but she is also nervous about the crutches and the pain; the wheelchair wasn't a good introduction to mobility. I'm predicting tomorrow before we go home.

[sis2buds-blog]

Surgery around 1:00 PST

Kelty will be checking in at 11:30 on Tuesday and surgery is scheduled for around 1:00 p.m. It is expected to take about three hours. Dean is looking forward to making Sis breakfast at 4:00 a.m. as she can't eat after 4:30. He suggested leaving a muffin by her bed overnight, but she isn't going for it.