It’s been a rough two weeks, but she seems to be over a big hump today…and has finally given me some time to give you an update.
The last update was just after we got home. She was in bad shape, but perked up pretty quickly.
We created this gated area (I had to zip tie the dog gate to the furniture because both she and the dogs figured out how to move it after two days).
This area kept her contained and from running around too much.
She came home on Saturday and by that Monday she was crying and complaining so much that I had to rush her in to the doctor’s office. They removed a drain and that seemed to make her feel a bit better.
She still had the catheter (for another week), but with the weather being so crazy, I’m glad I acted when I did. She was able to sleep better that night and was much friendlier (still not totally friendly, but better) the next day.
But by Wednesday she was a mess again. She was screaming and complaining, “Pee-pee owie!”. I had been trying to switch her over from the hydorcodone with acetaminophen to just alternating acetaminophen and ibuprofen, but I think the incisions had started to itch (looked like the stitches had dissolved).
I gave her the max dose of meds that night and she went from a screaming mess to pulling her dress over her head (glimpses of her college days?)
The next day went pretty well, but a big struggle through all this has been that she can’t/won’t sit down.
Picking Connor up from school is a daily nightmare.
We usually walk, but sitting in a stroller isn’t a good idea…plus it’s cold (at least by TX standards). So we’ve been doing car rider since I have some egg crate stuff in her car seat.
But she still screams through most of it even though she’s watching a movie and eating Goldfish the entire time (she screamed before the surgery so hard to tell if it’s pain or just normal)
By Friday of that first week, she figured out how to escape from her prison. I ran upstairs to get something for the boys and I looked down and saw her slide down the back of the couch (supposed to be absolutely no climbing).
To add to things, Evan had been sick all week, then by week end, Connor and Maddi started coming down with it too. So on Saturday…I ran away.
I left Dave home with the kids and just stayed out of the house until after dinner. I hadn’t been outside in 10 days and was at the end of my rope.
Tuesday we headed back to the dr to have the catheter removed (that was such a PITA!).
They removed it, but said we needed to call if she hadn’t peed by 7:30pm….which of course she hadn’t really. We hoped that going to sleep would allow her to relax her bladder, but she screamed ALL NIGHT LONG every time she started to pee.
I got 4 hours sleep and we were both a wreck on Wednesday.
We headed back to the dr to do an ultrasound and talk about what to do next.
They gave her some pills to help numb the area and I brought her home and set her on the potty and tried every trick every mother has ever tried to get a child to pee…all at the same time…and nothing worked.
The medicine turned her pee a dark orange so I could see that little bits were coming out.
By dinner though she was still screaming and scratching and kicking and just a flat out mess. She passed out downstairs at 6:15pm so we drugged her back up and sent her to bed.
At 4am she started screaming, so I went in and found that she had released quite a bit of it. I changed her and then she decided it was time to get up. We had quite the fight, but she eventually went back to sleep.
She’s been pretty subdued today…and still peeing. I think she’s still tired (plus has a cold). At 11:20am she was just kind of wandering around, so I asked if she was ready for bed and she said yes. She’s been down almost 2 hours (which is the only reason I’m getting this done…she laid on me all day yesterday!).
We head to the surgeon that did the colon part of the repair tomorrow to talk about next steps. She will need an invasive therapy for the next 4 months or so and another surgery so we’re not quite out of the murky waters yet.
But she is sitting on one cheek these days…so definitely on the road to recovery!
Thank you to everyone for your kind thoughts and words.
