Surgery

Maddy coloring while we wait for food at Scottish Rite. The cafeteria is her favorite place to eat!

 Besides moving into a real house, the big event of September was Maddy's surgery. The tendon in her right heel had gotten very tight from a growth spurt. We tried to work on it quite a while through therapy but just couldn't get the flexibility needed for her to get her heel flat on the ground. She was walking on her toes on her right foot so the doctor decided surgery was in order and the therapist agreed so we schedule it for September 13th. We had to miss a whole week of school to do the surgery.

waiting to talk to anesthesia

 We traveled down on Saturday and were able to help Bethany celebrate her 6th birthday! I forgot those pics so will add those in at the end. We had a great time with the kids playing and doing all the normal birthday activities like eating cake and ice cream and opening presents.

 On Sunday we had to start her pre-op wipes. The had some kind of skin bacteria killing stuff to prevent infection durin surgery. We had to wipe everything except her head and face. It was one of those awkward surgery/doctor things we had to do and Maddy and I had some good laughs and jokes figuring out how to follow the instructions and wipe everything down. We had to do the wipes Sunday, Monday and Tuesday morning before surgery.
On Monday the 12th we had all our pre-op appointments. We got to the hospital at 10, check in, did our admit and consent forms, saw the doctor, ate lunch, met with anesthesia, got our room assignment, met with PT, child life, dietitian, and nurse. We got done with all of that about 4. The girls did like playing with the hospital bed and watching TV. Maddy was disappointed she didn't get to stay and order supper from the room service menu. We did not stay the night at the hospital since we were so close staying with Tam and Jeff. The surgery was scheduled for 12:30 the next day so we didn't have an early morning commute to deal with either. We had to be back at the hospital at 9. Maddy couldn't eat anything after midnight and no liquids after 9 a.m.

 We got to the hospital and just watched tv for a while. About 11 I got her into her gown. She picked the dog gown. Kelsay was very fascinated by the fact that Maddy had to take all her clothes off including her panties to put the gown on. I don't know why, but that was the detail she chose to share with everyone about Maddy's surgery. They came and got Maddy about 12. We went down with her and a nurse at the nurses station watched Kelsay. They gave her "goofy juice" before taking her down. She was crying when we started down to surgery. The "goofy juice" kicked in right at the elevator. WE could tell exactly when it hit, but because her emotion was crying when it kicked in she continued to be very emotional and tearful through the rest of the process of getting to surgery. SHe later told us that the last thing she remembered was getting to the elevator so she didn't remember all of hte being upset or going through admit in surgery. THey gave her a stuffed dog in the admit room. It's name was josh and it had a red bandana. She was really unhappy about that red bandana and said the dog's name was NOT Josh. SHe kept trying to get the bandana off. She also asked why there were two of the nurse admittting her. Guess the "goofy juice" had her seeing double. They came to get her to take her back to the OR and we had to say bye. We went back up and found Kelsay having a wonderful time getting spoiled at the nurses station. They gave her a grape Popsicle and a coloring book.

 While Maddy was in surgery we went and had lunch and went to the gift shop. Kelsay picked a gift to give Maddy only after we agreed to buy her the little toy, pink vespa bike she found in the gift shop.

 The surgery lasted about an hour. Everything went well and the doctor felt like they were able to get her foot back in neutral. Tammy came up during the surgery so she was able to watch Kelsay while we went down to recovery to see Maddy. Maddy was crying and saying her leg hurt so they gave her some morphine. Once they did that she kind of passed out again for a while. She never complained about her leg hurting like that again. We did give her tylenol with codine but I almost wonder if part of the pain was just still delirium from anesthesia.
She came back to the room and it was so sweet to see Kelsay give her kisses and pat her head and be concerned that Maddy would be okay. While Maddy was sleeping, Aaron, Tammy and Kelsay went over to Arlington to get a truck we purchase. Yeah, we are crazy. We did all of that on surgery day so it was a little wild.

 When they got bakc to the hospital, Maddy was awake. We'd ordered some food for her. Food sounded good, but once it got there she wasn't very hungry. However, she was determined to go home that evening. SHe started with sips of water, then saltine crackers and then had the food we ordered. SHe only had a few bites of each item but it was enough for us to feel very confident that her stomach was settled, pain was under control and she could go home. We left the hospital about 6. THey would not give us a cast shoe because it wasn't on the discharge notes so we had to go back the next day and pick that up. So that was annoying, but a very small hitch for all that went on that day.

 We were all very tired. Tammy had bought MM a piece of cake for a post surgery celebration. She was able to eat a few bite and watch TV. I slept on the floor by her bed that night but Maddy never stirred a peep.

 THe next morning she was excited for pancakes but again her appetite just wasn't up to par. She really did not get her appetite back til Saturday. I think the pain meds bothered her tummy quite a bit. We finally just decided to switch from the prescription meds to Motrin and that helped more than anything. Travelling back on Thursday was exhausting. Her foot hurt off and on just from not having it up as much as she should have. She felt pretty icky on Friday, but Saturday morning she was ready to roll. She got several get well gifts and enjoyed those a lot. So did Kelsay!

 She really made great progress over the weekend. WE went and saw the colors in Cripple Creek that Sunday and then on Monday she was back to school. The teacher told me she hit school literally running. He said she ran all day. So thankful for an uneventful surgery and good recovery for her. We are less than a week away from getting her cast off. We travel back to Dallas next week and the cast comes off on OCt. 27. SHe will get a new AFO at that time as well.