Sorry I've been a bit MIA. It's all been a bit tricky (and time consuming) with her in the NICU. She's technically at Children's and I'm at the regular hospital. So the distance is about 2/3 of a mile of back hallways to get to her each time. H has been a total dream getting us everywhere but we have to factor in being in my room for food and drugs and rest and being with her for cares and doctors rounds. Most of the time things don't really mesh up so we're running around like chickens with theirs heads cut off. It's exhausting too.
Anywho, her surgery was loooong (about five hours) but she was perfect. The goal was to completely close the opening in her back and retain as much of the function she had pre-surgery. She was moving her legs pretty well and wasn't showing signs of bladder issues beforehand so they really hoped she'd still have that post closure. She has one big (maybe 5 inch) closure incision up her spine and the two smaller (maybe 2 inch) incisions on each of her sides. They had to make the smaller cuts to be able to properly pull skin and muscle across the center. She the has a skin graft front the back of her thigh/butt that the used to cover the two side incisions. So a total of four places (graft, two sides and spine) that need to heal. She's laying full time on her belly, basically spread eagle. She has a warmer bed since and something akin to a Temperapedic mattress. They want her laying still like that until Monday/Tuesday to give all the incisions time to heal. And also to keep her out of pain. She's mostly just snoozing, under the slightest bit of pain meds, which is amazing to me because it all looks super painful.
Part of my delay in the craziness is that she was having some spells after surgery. Basically every time they would do her periodic cares, she would get pissed off because they were messing with her and she'd hold her breath. Which is not okay. After several de-stat issues, they worked out that what she needed was just the slightest amount of oxygen. Easy fix! So she's done great since lunchtime today when they added that.
Right now she's not feeding yet. Just IV caloric stuff. Hasn't lost much weight at all thanks to that. They might start BM tomorrow. It's a bit daunting since she's on her belly. Burping her is almost impossible and they don't want her asperating. So we'll deal with that tomorrow and see what they come up with. Ironically, my pumping is going great. Milk came in about 48 post CS, which is a bit early, so in just sticking up for her.
So now we wait. Maybe by the first part of next week we can adjust her to her sides or something. Miiiiiight even be able to hold her for the first time then too!! Looks like we'll be here atleast another 2-3 weeks. Got a room at the local Ronald McDonald House so when I'm discharged tomorrow we'll head there. My parents are bringing DS up tomorrow and will be her first visitors. A friendly face (esp my little sweetie's) will be great after five days of strangers!
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