12/10/2007 First Cast Change

Each day since we have been home from the hospital she went longer and longer without pain, Sunday she didn't say she had any pain all day. In fact she was even asking to walk I had to tell her no until we talk to the doctor so she doesn't hurt her feet. She was telling everyone her feet are fixed and they look like Bailey's now. One seems about 1/2 longer, but it is hard to tell with the cast. They look really good though, she looks like she just broke her legs, the feet already look pretty normal. We are so excited for her to get them off, 11 more weeks to go.

Today, one week after her surgery, is her first cast change (we have 11 weeks of this, though we might not need a cast change each and every week... but at minimum will the first few weeks)

We went to the hospital at 10:00am, though she didn't end up going to surgery until noon. Which we were actually happy about since they said it might be as late as 3 or 4:00pm... which would be so hard on her not being able to eat and all. She is not a big breakfast person, so the early morning is not a issue. In fact she didn't even ask for food until 15 minutes before the surgery. Because they got her in surgery so quickly she was not able to get her verced, so I was a little nervous how she would do going back to the operating room. They let them pick their FLAVOR for the gas. So she picked bubblegum, and they put it on the mask and let them play with it a while before surgery. She puts it on her face and smells it. I think that it would really traumatic to just push the mask on her face. Letting her play with it and get comfortable with it, I think are really helpful. They start to take her back to the room for the operation and she didn't cry at all... or really even act scared. I was so relieved and happy. It just goes to show how much she trusts the doctors and nurses.

it was supposed to be a quick procedure, she was only under about 30-45 minutes. But then she was in recovery for over 2 hours. Longer then any of her major surgeries.
They said she was having severe pain and her blood pressure was 160/120. Which is REALLY high. She had an epidural, plus they had given her loritab, and valium and finally morphine. She finally was doing better and they let her come to the room, but they were checking her blood pressure every 15 minutes. When she got in the room it was about 138/88 and it slowing dropped to a more normal level... she was finally able to sleep.

We were supposed to be in and out pretty quickly, but I ended up there all day until 9:30pm. They initially thought that she would have to spend the night, but around 7pm, she suddenly turned around. I really think the 6:30pm activity really helped. She got to make a gingerbread house and she loved it and FORGOT about the pain. I was not at all prepared for an overnight as she has always done so well with the surgeries (Anesthesia) and this wasn't really surgery just re-positioning her foot.

She got a red and green cast... for Christmas (her big brother Jordan talked her into that one)

We have another cast change this Monday, so I will go to the hospital more prepared in case we do need to stay the night. I am a little more worried now that she didn't do as well. But no one seemed sure why she had so much pain. In fact both surgeons came in separately to check on her and were surprised that her green (her cast were green on one leg and red on the other) leg was hurting, they said they barely moved that one, that the red one was the one they really pushed harder in position.

They gave her little cast shoes and said if she wanted to walk to let her, it will help stretch things out more.

So keep Olivia in your payers on Monday that she does well and doesn't have a bad recovery again.