This surgery went a lot better in some ways and went a little worse in a few other ways. We knew what we were doing this time around. For instance when they call you back to wait for surgery and also when they call you back to hear how the surgery went, you go to this same dreary little room that’s poorly lit. So we always turn on all six of the x-ray light panels that take up an entire wall to see better. It really lifts the mood in the room when there’s lots of light. Of course when Charley went to take Laelia into surgery a nurse came by and asked why an entire wall of light panels were on when there were no x-rays to see. How do you explain to an all-business nurse that you’re all alone and your baby has been taken to a scary surgery and you need the “feel good” lights? I just shrugged and smiled until she left. :)

Once Laelia was out of surgery, instead of waiting around for them to call me and for me to get lost somewhere like last time, I waited a little while and then marched over to the recovery area and said, “I’m here to see Laelia.” They said she hadn’t woken up yet and it’s against policy blah blah blah, and I said, “I’ll wait here,” as I leaned over their desk and refused to move. Then I asked every 30 seconds to see my baby. It worked pretty fast. Pretty soon afterwards I was calling my husband and announcing, quite proud of myself, “I’m watching our daughter sleep. Squeaky wheel. Love you, bye!” I’m glad I was there because it took her a lot longer than normal to wake up. The doctor came by to check on her because she was still asleep past the 40 minutes after surgery. The doctor told me something about how Laelia was probably still sleeping because she wasn’t scared and felt safe since I was there. That made me feel good since I had been singing to her the whole time she slept (which was over an hour and a half), until I realized that that answer was most likely BS. But at least I was there watching her sleep and knowing she was okay and alive. If I had had to wait in that waiting room for over an hour and a half of her in a baby coma after surgery I would have freaked. Even rock-steady Charley was starting to worry.

I noticed that she had wonderful vitals when I sang to her. Actually once I started to sing her bedtime song to her and her pulse started to race like she was agitated. I realized she never really liked that song because it signaled the end of play time and meant she would have to go to sleep by herself in her crib. So it was kindof eye-opening to see which songs she liked as she slept. There were obvious favorites. Her pulse and blood pressure couldn’t lie.

By the way, the nurses were so wonderful this time around. Our check-in nurse was giving us useful advice, making sure she spoke to Laelia’s kitty like he was the one getting surgery and even tested his stuffed vitals before testing Laelia’s, and she also told us about how to get free dinner and how to get information during the surgery. It was a much better experience when the people cared!

Laelia was doing better physically this time around so they stuck her in a busy room with two other kids. One was screamy and whiny and getting her way an awful lot because she broke her arm and the whole family felt sorry for her. The other little girl was a total brat who bugged everyone from the nurses to the receptionist to other families and children, “Make your baby stop crying, I’m trying to heal over here!” This brat finally chased away her mom who slept in a different room and left her free to terrorize the nurses. She would page the receptionist all the time and order them around. She demanded ice cream and when they would bring her ice cream then she would demand a popsicle. Charley spent the night with Lali and they both got a total of three hours of sleep because of all this, which disrupted Laelia’s recovery process quite a bit. Laelia was fussier than usual and totally sleep deprived. We wondered if the pain meds were working and went home with some stronger stuff just in case. If I had been there I would have asked for another room.

But other than that, only a few hours after surgery, Chelsea and Adam brought over Golden Spoon and Laelia asked for some. So I gave her a small bit and waited for her to spit it out. But she just demanded more and more and more! Her poor sore throat! But she was eating and talking and doing so much better than last time! Last time (only two weeks ago, but it feels like months ago) she didn’t say her first word until 9:00 PM and didn’t eat anything until the next morning! But this time she was eating frozen yogurt and a roll and a bite of turkey and drinking a ton of water.

Well the ton of water backfired because she wet her bed and her clothes and everything else. Changing a baby’s diaper is just so hard when that baby is in two casts with a bar between them. Not only that but she had surgery on her hips that are just bandaged. I’m going to need to buy some onesies since she can’t wear pants now either.

Once we brought her home she went to sleep for four hours! When we went to check on her we noticed that her toes were purple. So we called the doctor and rushed back into the hospital for an emergency cast fix. We were an emergency case so they rushed us through… which took two hours. I’m so glad her toes didn’t fall off! But other than that adventure, she did beautifully once she was at home and able to rest.

Oh and there was only one time when I went into a room I wasn’t suppose to. I was in the bathroom when they called us in to tell us how the surgery went. Charley went in with the nurse and disappeared. By the time I figured out where they went I had to muscle open a hospital-staff-only door, working against the mechanisms that would usually prevent entrance. I really don’t even blink when I do that stuff now. I have no shame.

This entry was posted on Saturday, October 3rd, 2009 at 7:52 pm and is filed under bye-bye, coping, medical science, Scared. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.