Birthday Saved!

Thanks everyone for your birthday wishes and kind words of support.

The surgical doc was able, after 3 more attempts, to get the IV placed in her foot. I guess in this case 9 is the magic charm. That means she gets to keep her epidural which many of you moms know from childbirth, is great. Even though it had clearly worn off some because she cried during the IV attempts in her feet and later when I changed her diaper.  Still I fear what kind of pain she might experience if we'd been forced to switch to oxycodone if we couldn't get an IV in. So 7 hours later.... Sheesh!

Steve and the kids arrived just in time to save my birthday! Yea! My absolute favorite, Chinese food! It sure beat today's menu choice, "hot dog bar", at the cafeteria.  Seriously that's on the menu. In addition to the regular hotdogs they offer.... in case that isn't enough. Anyway.We all ate together in the room and it was really nice to have them here for a little break.

...and had the most delicious chocolate raspberry cake.

Adrian blew up glove balloons.

Evie gave me these gloves. Those are no ordinary medical gloves. They are covered in her kisses so I can put them on later if I'm missing her. This is her adaptation of "The Kissing Hand".

I got some handmade cards from the kids and a scrapbooking book which will be fun to read if Ainsley ever falls asleep and have a spare minute to myself.

Saying goodbye when visiting hours were over and seeing the full cast. Doesn't she look huge?! I swear she looks taller.

Ainsley didn't even give a hint of a smile to Evie and Adrian so then you know she's not happy. She's been wimpering/crying the entire day and needed a TON of suctioning. It reminds me of when she was strapped into the reflux wedge as a baby and the secretions would just percolate in the trach no matter how many times you suctioned. I knew she needed sleep. So we just tried repositioning her on her stomach since that's the way she has slept for the past 3 years. It's tricky to get her positioned because of the cast and the trach. And her heart rate and respirtory rate are higher than normal. So we're going to see about another epidural bolus on top of the epidural drip. At least it looks like if she will sleep this way if we can get her reasonably comfortable. I really need some sleep myself.  Hopefully tomorrow will bring good changes. But we knew this would be a difficult recovery. They said 3-5 days inpatient. I suspect it will be 2 more nights. BTW we are in room 3004.