Post - op Day 3

It truly amazes me the progress Avery has made in these past 3 days! Today Avery added walking to her list of accomplishments post - surgery. After she was done with the walking and settled back down, she said the walking didn't bother her at all, but the getting up to walking and the sitting back down afterwards hurts - and that hurt scares her, so she doesn't really want to do it. And I feel like perhaps we have different motivations for this, so I will need to rethink my encouragements. Pre - surgery we had explained that in order for her to come home she needed to eat, poop, and walk. Post - surgery we have added the interim step of the removal of the catheter and all her lines including her pain pump in the pre - pooping stage. Today she said she didn't really want the catheter out because then she would have to get up and walk to the washroom ... so I need a better sell.

I was excited when I got here today to hear that he ate a whole apple. Lunch didn't go over as well with all the walking and sitting in a chair for 3 hours, but I held out some hope for dinner. Aunt Kari showed up mid afternoon with the promised snuck in mint chocolate chip ice cream from Baskin Robbins, which Avery gratefully accepted. She managed to eat a tablespoon or so of that then needed a rest. One of the excellent staff came by to see what she wanted for dinner - the Friday night special being meatloaf with mashed potatoes and peas - she wasn't interested in the meatloaf, but asked for the potatoes - with gravy - and a bowl of soup and some apple slices. This was apparently a very odd dinner order, as the guy who brought up the tray called me to make sure this was actually what she wanted. She ate a tablespoon of potatoes and a spoonful of soup then pushed the tray away. I think she is starting to get the link between food and poop.

She has been drinking tea. Maybe not the ideal beverage for a 12 year old, but on the beer scale of urine colours, she is clearly sufficiently hydrated.

The video chat with her class did her wonders, and the cheers and applause when she announced she walked was amazing - I think Andrew said it brought a tear to his eye, well it did to mine too (mind you when I stalked by one of her friend's house this morning to pass on that it would be nice if they could call her again today, I had  tear then too)  she really has some awesome friends. Her teacher is hoping to make it up for a visit, if not Sunday then early next week, and around dinner her Principal called to see how she was doing.

Andrew said she had been consistent with her pain pump for the first 2 days at about 200 hits each day, and unless something goes south later today, I am certain that number will be significantly less tomorrow - which also heads us the right direction to transition her to oral pain meds and losing yet another line.

Andrew and I just moved her bed so she could still watch TV while she is on her side - I hope the nurses aren't upset :)

Thanks for following!

She Walks!

We have had a great night / morning. Pants woke me up a few times asking for water and only gave me minimal grief when I said she had to sleep instead of watching TV.

When morning finally came she was feeling good and ate a whole apple and finished her apple juice. The first substantial amount of real food she's eaten since Monday night (though she did manage 1/3 of a piece of peanut butter toast yesterday).

The physiotherapist came by at 9am and Avery was still digesting so she asked that she come back in half an hour. When she returned we took a few minutes to get every standing up and then it was out into the hallway with her. She walked out about 8 feet and then walked about 6 feet back and has been sitting in a chair for almost two hours now. She's positively exhausted from such a busy morning.

Her whole class video called shortly after her journey to the hallway and back and when they all heard she had taken her first steps they erupted into applause and cheering. Brought tears to my eyes.

She's resting now and we're just keeping an eye on her abdomen. The drugs work a number on the GI system and we want to make sure everything is okay there. Hopefully the neck IV comes out today too.

That's it for the morning of Day 3 of post op. I have lost all sense of time.

~ Dad

Quotes and SATs

"I want to go home. Why can't I just go home?"

"I wish I could live a different life until all this was over."

"Why is everyone asking me to hurt myself?"

These are all things that Pants said to me over the last 8 hours, the last one just before midnight. Her oxygen saturation levels were dipping below 90 even though she was breathing just fine (95 or better is what we want to see). The nurse was asking her to cough and take deep breaths and that makes her back hurt. I was getting her to breathe deeply and her levels were getting up into the 90's again but would dip back down after she stopped the deep inhalations. Apparently this is common when kids (and possibly adults) are on morphine and sleeping deeply. At least that's what the nurse told me. I Googled it and didn't get the search terms right I'm sure because all I found were links to terrifying studies I could have gone all week without having seen.

Stupid Internet. 

The nurse went away and came back with a cylindrical container of water that she attached to the oxygen hole in the wall and then hooked up one of those over-the-ear and up-your-nose plastic tubes. Immediately her SATs spiked back. The oxygen bong was working!

I felt better and thought of Vinny Barbarino. Pants said to me, "I feel like Hazel Grace". I asked her if that was April Grace's mother or grandmother and Pants made a face; one of sheer disappointment that, had she been in a healthier mood, would have come with a  "Dad-dy!" (if you know my daughter you have heard this many times before). She then informed me that Hazel was the terminally ill kid from The Fault In Our Stars. I made sure she knew that this was a little different and that she didn't have cancer, she just had morphine. She hit her button and gave me her best smile. That kid has got impeccable comedic timing.

All was well again. Now if we could just the the code red in sector whatever to stop that would be great. Also, they are performing maintenence on the code red system so if you have a code red dial extension 5555 (or get in touch with Colonel Jessup).

To wrap up the evening's midnight festivities she closed with a quote that would make Charlie Sheen proud:

"I just took five pills!" [all at once]

*drops mic*