Saturday, August 29, 2009

Good Night

Ellie is half awake and half asleep right now watching Sleeping Beauty. She had a good night with only a few awake periods. We did have to increase the pain meds in her epidural this morning. Since the increase she is doing better and seems comfortable.

It is weird for Gib and I, her reconnection surgery was 3 months ago, so this all seems way too familiar. For past surgeries we have requested to do bowel prep at home. But this time we decided to come in. It was a great idea.

We were able to get a room on our floor, request the meds and orders that we wanted post-op to make Ellie more comfortable, use Ellie's room as home base during the procedure and have a much more smooth transition back to the floor after the PACU.

The best move we getting the orders written for anti-itch drip before the surgery. In the past she has been incredibly itchy from the pain meds, even going so far as to rub raw spots on her face. We have discovered the Benadryl does nothing for her and a constant infusion of Nubain is the only thing that gives her relief. This time we started the infusion before she started to itch and it worked wonderfully. She has had next to no itching.

As for bowel prep, it did help that she had been either NPO or on only clears for the past 2 weeks, so bowel prep was a breeze.

Wait.. a breeze for us, Ellie still did not like it. No surprise there. We have started the practice of shopping before we go inpatient and making sure she gets a present after any especially unpleasant procedures. This has helped a ton. As soon as we are done with a procedure she will stop crying and ask what her surprise is. Distraction is a great thing.

Both Gib and I stayed here last night, taking shifts sleeping in the playroom. Amazingly we both feel pretty well rested.

Now we all are in for a day of rest, recovery and lots and lots of princess movies. Once again sorry for the lack of pictures. We are working on that.

2 comments:

lorraine v said...

Hey guys. Sorry to read that Ellie has needed yet one more surgery. However, seems like she withstood it in typical Ellie style. She is the most amazing little girl I have had the pleasure to work with and get to know. Sorry that we at your former E.I. were not around to provide support. But we all do check up on her via this blog. Stay strong -preschool will be starting before you know it.

Rhea said...

Thanks for the update - continuing to pray for a quick recovery!!!