Surgery #2

Well, Sammy has successfully made it through 2 surgeries in her lifetime. Yesterday went well overall. Thanks for all the thoughts and prayers. And big thank you to April for watching Callie all day!

I left around 11:30am to drop Callie off and go to the hospital. On the way, I picked Marcus up from work. Making our way through the hospital district in Spokane, which is rather confusing, we made it to our check-in point. My only other children's hospital experience is with Primary Children's Medical Center in Salt Lake. I love it there and was convinced there was no better place. Spokane's Sacred Heart was very impressive though. In fact, their check-in area was superior I believe. There was toys for Sammy to play with and it was just a very comfortable area to wait in before they took her away.

No Mom, these blocks were already dumped out all over the floor before I got here. I swear.

The nurse took us to a side room where they prepped Samantha for surgery. She giggled a bit at first, but then soon decided that cold hands and temperature taking was no funny business and bagan to cry.



Her gown was a little big, but she still looked cute in it. At this point, Samantha was starting to get a little agitated. It's understandable though. She hadn't had a meal since 6:30pm the night before, hadn't drank anything since 10:00am, and it was now 1:30pm. What a trooper. They did give her a drink of Versed that helped calm her down and get her a bit loopy before taking her away. Kissing and saying goodbye to her wasn't half as hard as it was for her first surgery. This surgery is a pretty standard one and we knew it'd be short and we'd see her soon.


The surgery took longer than expected. I guess the actual surgery didn't take longer than the normal time -- about 1/2 hour I suppose -- but they couldn't bring her out for a long time because she wasn't handling the anesthesia very well. She wasn't breathing on her own, so they had to keep her on the ventilator a bit longer. The doctor said there was a lot more fluid in her ear than she had been able to see in the examination, and that that fluid was most likely there for a long time causing irritation. Poor girl. I felt so bad for her when we heard that. Can you imagine walking around with water in your ears? How uncomforable.



When we went to see her, she was not happy. She had a small cat-like cry and was visibly uncomfortable. They had given her some morphine, but she was still really upset. I held her and rocked her, but she was obviously hurting, and she was freezing cold. They kept bringing blankets from their little blanket warmer. They gave her another dose of morphine (which was double of what they gave her the first time) and she finally was able to relax and fall asleep. We waited awhile before we could leave and take her home. She wouldn't drink anything, but they finally said she was ok to go home.

When we got to the elevators, she finally opened her eyes. She was tired and groggy, but her eyes were open and she was pretty calm. On the way home she threw up. Last night, once at home, she threw up about 4 more times. She doesn't handle anesthesia very well. This happened last time too. I slept on the futon with her last night so I could help her if she was throwing up through the night. But luckily, there was no incident, and she slept well until 1:30am. From that point on, she was squirming and waking up a lot -- afterall, she had had a very long nap during the day.



Today has been pretty good. She had a rougher morning, but is doing well now. She's even playing. She has taken all her medicines and kept them down, and even drank a bunch of water and had a few bites of oatmeal. I think today will be a much better day for her.

I am grateful for this surgery. Hopefully it will help her feel better in general, and perhaps it will really help her seizures. She seemed to have seizures whenever she got sick. Maybe taking care of the ears will help with that. I wonder why no other doctor ever thought of this. In any event, we're happy how it all turned out. And though it was really fast and a bit overwhelming at first, I'm soooo glad it happened this quickly so Sammy wouldnt have to hurt any longer. The miracles of prayer and medicine are working for our little girl.