Calcaneal Osteotomies and Hamstring Lengthening

Our check in time was 9:45 this morning. Ainsley woke up excited for surgery to "fix her legs" by giving us thumbs up and pointing at her legs with a big smile. Even at the hospital waiting, area she was good.

Things started to get a little tough once we scrubbed her down with the wipes and got into the gown. She started to shiver but a stack of warm blankets helped while we waited.

We had an issue regarding intubation which had been arranged to be done fiber optically because of Ainsley's history of severe airway swelling (her airway was completely swollen shut for the first 2 years of her life, hence the trach). It's a long story and I don't have the energy to fully explain, but for complex reasons the anesthesiologist wanted to do it the regular way. It started things off badly, but in the end they did it fiberoptically as planned and that doctor disappeared. I was so thankful that Steve backed me up with a "no way"!

At the hospital it's always hurry up and wait...finally she went back at 11:10. She asked for Steve to walk her back at the last minute. Steve found an all day breakfast joint near the hospital since we hadn't eaten. The food was great and the portions were big, so I saved some for later so it was basically breakfast, lunch and dinner. We headed to the U-Village to do some shopping and received pages every 2 hours, with a status update. I don't do a lot of leisure shopping. Maybe that's why it always feels very weird to pass the time that way while your child is having surgery. But I'm thankful it's so close to the hospital.

They finished about 5:30 and we got the room assignment by about 6:30 and then proceeded to do the intake paperwork and meet with the nurse, Ortho assistant, respiratory, ICU doc etc. 

When we first showed up she was looking rather pale and was connected to CPAP. We found she had good pain control because she is on an epidural. So she's needing less narcotics, which means she's not so sedated and thus doesn't need breathing support. Still we are happy to have the extra attention in the ICU (1 to 1 instead of 1 to 4). 

She hates stickies so it was great to get this stuff off her face! She started to be happier and her color started to improve.

Her feet however took longer to return to a more normal color. as you can see here they were quite 

blue. The casts are split in two down the sides to accommodate the inevitable swelling from surgery. They will be tightened and wrapped before we leave.

She has braces on her legs to protect the muscles from the hamstring lengthening, separated with an abductor bar to protect the hip muscles. She has a catheter for the time being. Tomorrow we will start PT so I can learn to transfer her. She can't bear weight for 6 weeks.

We've used her AAC device to help identify issues. It's been SO helpful!

They wrapped Teddy to match. So sweet!

We finally got some swabs for her mouth. We started a movie and Steve had to leave. She loved having her daddy here and was very sad when he left. I think she's doing well and we'll be transferred to the floor tomorrow. We'll start PT and hopefully she's be happier. Under the circumstances I really can't expect much more. She's been a trooper but she won't be happy until we are out of here and can remove the IV and hospital band which ironically is worse than the casts, catheter, and braces from her perspective. It's expected to be at least 3 days.

I had a VERY difficult time writing this on my iPad keyboard it was malfunctioning in Blogger (I left my laptop this time thinking the iPad would be simpler. That was a mistake.) and will have to come back and fix it later but just wanted to let everyone know how she's doing.