Day 1 - Post-Surgery

Once E.R. came out of her foggy state, we had quite an afternoon. For the first hour she cried, screamed, tried to pull out the IV in her hand, elbowed me to get off the bed, and tried to climb out of it. Chris and I exchanged glances as we tried to calm her. I don't know what he was thinking, but I was thinking: "okay-here we go with 'worst-case-scenario'".

Fortunately, after an hour or so she started calming. It also took two rounds of morphine. She didn't seem to notice her casted leg at this point. She was completely fixated on her arm with the IV.

She was talking and cheerful for awhile after that, watching an Elmo movie on the laptop Chris brought. I left to go get the boys from school. She slept for about 15 minutes and Grandma left too. Then she started her fitful, restless state. She would zone out for 90 seconds or so, appearing to sleep, then thrash around crying and whining. She did eat a lot, though, which was really good.

I relieved Chris at around 7:00, and he took J.T. home for the night. E.R. watched movies on the laptop until about 10:00, and I was sure she pass out from exhaustion at that point.

But the night was rough.

She continued the 90 second cycle through the night. We tried everything. She had so much pain medicine in her system. Every time, the nurses would assure me that "this will do it", and nothing seemed to phase her. I laid next to her in a chair-bed holding her hand most of the night. It was hard because none of us really knew what was pain, what was fear from being in a new place, what was anger from being hooked up to stuff, and what was the anesthesia going through her system.

Her nurse practitioner came early the next morning. She changed one of her pain meds, and told me that some kids don't sleep at all the first night. I sure wish someone could have told me that at the beginning of the night! She also said that E.R.'s little leg was probably throbbing terribly. Apparently there isn't much worse than bone pain like this. I'm sure that major burns are worse, but maybe not much else can touch this kind of pain. She also prepared us that most kids "hit a wall" on day 2 or day 3, so we should be prepared for that. I feel prepared now...

So we started the day completely exhausted. But I was so glad the first night was over! E.R. had made it through a very major procedure and the initial recovery that would have been a lot for an adult to handle. Our little 2 year-old, who is so small in her hospital bed, is doing amazingly well, especially considering she doesn't really understand much of what is happening around her. She is a resilient survivor. I can't wait to see what she does with this life...