10 fingers, 10 toes

So, Ava's sleeping for the night (hopefully!), and all-in-all, today was wonderful and went so smoothly! A quick summary of today:

We were the 3rd case of the day (starting at 10pm), and at first I thought it would be harder to stretch Ava that long without food or drink. (Remember, you have to be without food or drink for several hours before surgery). But, it actually worked out better this way because I had time to nurse Ava this morning! And surgery time corresponded perfectly with her regular nap time! So, that worked out nicely!

We got to pre-op at 9am this morning and all my favorite nurses were there! (Ava was at the same hospital that we use for our patients....so, I have worked with them many times). It was so nice to have the door open and have a familiar face ready to take care of Ava! After we got checked in, Ava started to deteriorate (which I knew would happen since she didn't get breakfast and it was nap time). So, we took out the trusty Nemo video with the portable DVD player, and just like that- Silence! Nemo is amazing. Watching Nemo.... Next, it was time to give Ava some Versed (which makes her droopy)....and that was just a load of fun! The taste isn't good, and we had to basically force it into the back of her mouth with a syringe and she cried and struggled, but we eventually got most of it in. And, OH BOY, ten minutes later, she was drooooopy!!! She was SO cute and was talking to everyone! When she became visibly effected by the Versed, that was the point where I started to get a little sad and worried....and yes, I started to cry. I couldn't help it. I tried so hard. But, I pulled it back together in time to put a gown on so I could walk Ava back to the OR and help get her situated. See the red eyes...on me! I thought she might be scare when I sat her on the table in the OR, but she was so high on her "happy juice" that she just looked at everyone while they put monitors and leads on her and talked away. She was very sweet. Then they did the mask induction which initially put her to sleep so they could get the IV and intubate. When she fell asleep, that was my cue to leave, and I kissed her several times and left. The second I got outside the door, the tears came hard, and there was nothing I could do about it. Thank GOD the surgery was only an hour!

So, long story short (sorta short!), an hour later, she was in recovery. She was breathing on her own, but she was still sleeping. They took us to see her, and she was sleeping so peacefully on a little pillow with her IV in the hand and a cast on her leg. :( She was so still, I had to make sure she was breathing! She slept for about 30 minutes after she was in recovery and then woke up. They brought her to me and she was pretty fussy for the first 20 minutes. Then ....we got NEMO! And, oh man, what a miracle movie that is. Even after surgery...it STILL WORKS!! Amazing!!! She had to have clear liquids before she could have formula (which is what she needed cause she was starving), but she doesn't really like water, and she's never had any other clear liquids...so, I wasn't sure if she'd like it. We tried some Pedialite, and that was a no go. Then we tried Gatorade, and after a few tastes, she decided it was yummy enough to drink! So, she drank several ounces of that and loved it. She was still pretty droopy and a little sad, but the Gatorade made her feel so much better. And I was very thankful for that. It was making me sad for her to be so sad. Shortly after that, we gave her a bottle of formula and she did great! We got to leave about an hour after she was in recovery. After that, she came home, played, ate, napped wonderfully, and was simply perfect. What a trooper. Kids are truly amazing. Here's her sweet little cast...with TEN toes! (It's a little weird that that sweet, extra bit of love it gone). Here's her princess band-aid where her IV was. So, like I said, she was wonderful and we are so grateful that everything went smoothly. Thanks to everyone's kind messages and prayers!

She was doing great this afternoon, she wanted to crawl and pull herself up to standing. She seriously acted like there wasn't a big orange cast on her leg (you were right, Carmen)! Her doc said she could bare weight on that foot since she's still small. Here she is carrying on as if nothing happened! This was right after we got home. She's still pretty droopy...we're watching Nemo here. It was the only way she'd stay still for 30 mins to let her wake up more. (I told her she could watch as much Nemo as she wants for the next few days)!
Well....this afternoon, we glanced at her foot, and it was bleeding. Damn. We looked in the tip of the cast, and it looks like a suture or two popped and it was an open wound. I paged the orthopedist on call and they said to call tomorrow to make an appointment to come in. If it's left the way it is now, it wont heal properly and will look like Ava has a bump on the side of her foot. We'll see what our options are tomorrow, but the on call guy said that they may need to take her back to surgery to take the cast off and fix the incision. :( I got really sad about this cause I just felt like the whole day went so well...and it was stressful. And I don't want Ava to have to go through that again. So, I'm feeling a little sad right now. My dad, of course, said that in the big scheme of things, this is a little problem that is fixable. So what if she has a funny looking toe?!...which is true. BUT, we went through all this to fix the funny looking toe! So, anyway, we'll see what they say tomorrow, and I'll keep you posted. Here's Ava taking a walk around the block! This is after we discovered the bleeding and we were trying to keep her off the foot for the rest of the night. HUGE challenge. This worked quite well, though! The balled up blanket was an attempt to elevate her foot (yeah right!) and the sock was to cover her toes so (hopefully) they would have less of a chance of being scraped any more!Wow. This got freaking LONG! So sorry. Y'all must think I'm insane...I think I am.