Neurosurgery Our short and bittersweet story.

OMG what a day... it was complete craziness. I woke up late and we were about 10 mins late getting to the hospital because I totally forgot to pack the passies. We had to stop at Walgreens at 4:45 am and get some because I knew better than to send her into surgery without it.

The surgery went well. Our anesthesiologist ended up being the one we requested... Dr. Reddy... she has been with Ky in ALL of her Kentucky surgeries here except one... and literally has been with us since Ky was born. With the day I experienced yesterday I am so incredibly glad that Reddy was with us yesterday. Had it been someone else I might have had a nervous breakdown.
Bob, the neurosurgeon, talked to us after surgery and said all is good there. Her movement is great and when he clipped her cord it snapped just like anticipated. That was a huge sigh of relief! However the next 11 hours that ensued post op were nothing short of hell. He said that the PACU people (recovery room) would be out to get us in the next hour. Before my butt could sit back down in the waiting room they were calling for us to come NOW.

They only allow one person in the PACU so I went alone only to find my baby writing in pain. She was screaming and flailing. She was supposed to be lying flat but it was all I could do to keep her on the bed. She was arching her back, banging her head... standing, sitting, flopping. You could tell that she was in major pain and that she was completely out of her mind. I tried to pick her up several times but each time she bucked and nearly lept out of my arms. After nearly an hour and a half of trying to get her pain under control she managed to kink her IV line and loose her IV... which meant we had to put in another one. I knew better than to attempt this without Troy. He is sometimes the only one who can talk any sense into Ky and he is CERTAINLY the only one who can hold her down long enough to get an IV in.

I think we ALL cursed the moment that Ky lost her IV.

I cannot even begin to tell you what all we had given Ky to get her comfortable but nearly 3 hours later we were able to get her to calm down enough to allow Troy to hold her. We burrito wrapped her and he held for over an hour. Dr. Reddy was very careful to numb both of Ky's feet before we attempted a new IV. I am truly appreciative of the compassion that she has and continues to show my baby girl... she is truly phenomenal.

Because of the sheer volume of pain meds that they had to give Ky we decided it would be best to take her to PICU where she could receive all the meds she needed. It was not the optimal thing for us... but we do what we have to do. We had FINALLY gotten Ky to settle down a bit and Troy was holding her so we were afraid to put her down so Troy literally climbed into the infant crib and held her while the nurse and transport guy wheeled both of them into the PICU. It was quite a site I assure you. If you watch the video below you will see pics... one thing I can say about us is that we we are nothing if not exciting.

We finally found a combination of drugs that helped Ky to rest overnight and troy stayed up with her while I got some sleep. The next day they moved us over to 4 West. With that move we have OFFICIALLY resided in EVERY single area of the Kentucky Children's Hospital. NICU, PICU, 4 East, and 4 West....

We had an amazing nurse on Wed and I am truly proud of her!! We are a lot to handle with all of Ky's medical needs and changing orders every hour for something or another must have been completely exhausting for her but she did everything with grace and with a smile and I cannot thank her enough for that. I am going to try and find out her name and send her a little something as a thank you... just because she was so great. Ky did really well the second day.. so well that we were headed for home.

The only snafoo that we had was ONE nurse overnight on Wed decided that she was going to take Ky's temperature RECTALLY. It was about 3 am and I had just nodded off to sleep and I hear Ky SCREAMING ... jump up out of bed ot realize... she is trying to shove that up her BUTT!!!!!! I nearly choked... Troy was laying there half asleep laughing. The only thing I can remember saying is... "STOP!!!!!!!! I PAID $30,000 for that A$$... FOR THE LOVE OF GOD DON'T SHOVE ANYTHING UP IT!!!!!!" I think I nearly scared the nurse to death. Poor woman was shaking... I was half asleep so you can imagine me nearly tackling you me in my mama bear state! LOL It was funny... I was actually laughing. I cannot tell if the woman was offended or scared or what but I don't think she touched Ky again that night! LOL

The next day we were released and we were home by noon. It was a whirlwind trip and I am glad that we are done with it. I am sure it will be good for Ky in the long run. It was a tough decision but its over and done with now.