Notes to myself (and others) for our next surgery

Tell the nurse as soon as we get in the room that all medications are to be scheduled and not given as needed. The past two times I have held off on the valium waiting to see spasms... don't wait to see spams! The valium was quite affective at managing her pain in between doses of other medications.

If she doesn't seem comfortable with the given narcotic/"big medicine" dose - ask if the dose can be increased and/or the frequency it is given. Dilaudid was more affective than the morphine, so we can ask for that the next time.

I think the next time I would try the epidural again, but if we find it is finicky or not affective get it pulled and start Toridol and up the other medications. I wouldn't wait more than a few hours of a finicky epidural. I have heard when they work they really work, but ours did not this time and we should have realized that sooner.

She tends to get itchy between the narcotics and the incisions, so start benedryl right off the bat.

When they first start the medications ask for them to give the frequency and also the dosage and write it down in a notebook or on the whiteboard. Stay on top of the dosing and be sure that they are given on time.

Be sure to start miralax as soon as you get in the room - that's when she will suck down 1-2 big cups of water without any coaxing.

Don't let the nurses make you feel bad for asking for more or different medicine for her. I was a bit intimidated to ask for benedryl yesterday for the itching she was having under her casts, but now feel confident it was perfectly appropriate. Remember you know her best.

Surgery updates

We are at the Omaha children's hospital now for Molly's surgery. We'll probably be re-rodding both tibias today. I'll update the blog through the day as we have progress.

12:22pm
They have accessed her port, and now she is off to get x-rays. They had to bump one kid with a fracture ahead of us, so our surgery will likely be around 2pm central time today. Poor Molly hasn't had anything to eat since last night, and is getting hungry.

2:15
molly is in for surgery. She was in good spirits while we waited for everything to be ready. The surgery should take about 4 hours.

3:40
Surgery is finally underway. It took a while to get the all of the prep done.

4:05
Things are still underway, working on the first leg. Nothing out of the ordinary to report.

4:55
They have finished with the first leg, and they are moving on to the next. So far so good. We talked about having an epidural this time, which should help with the pain and recovery after the surgery is finished.

6:00
They have finished the other leg. There was less bowing it that leg, so it went more smoothly. Seems to have gone well throughout the surgery. We will probably see her in teh next 1-2 hours.

6:30

They are finished with the surgery and she is now being moved into recovery. He felt things went well. He did one incision at the mid-tibia area for an osteotomy (surgical break) and both fibulas are also broken. She may be slightly shorter on the right side due to the way the fibula is sitting, but he felt that it will balance out on its own or with subsequent surgeries and his main goal was for her to heal from this one. He noticed a lot callus (bone healing) on the front of the right tibia, which told him that she has been breaking that bone off and on for quite a while.

We should be able to see her in the next 30-45 minutes. The anesthesiologist is redoing the epidural because she wasn't getting the complete pain coverage that Molly needs (I don't want to know how they know that), but we are hopeful that they will have it figured out by the time we see her and that she will be comfortable for the next 1-2 days while it is in.

7:30

They are still trying to get her epidural set up. It will be a little longer before we will be able to see her. This waiting is unbearable.

9:30
We are in the room with Molly, and she is sleeping in bed. The Epidural seems to be helping more with pain management than previous surgeries. She asked for some water when we got into the room, and then she went back to sleep.

10:30

We're on the medication roller coaster. She was doing OK when we got up here and has since come to and been upset and in pain. She screamed and was angry (understandably so) and we are now trying new medications. We have started with morphine and will soon be adding some valium to the mix. Here's to tomorrow or the next day when I won't have to hear my daughter whimper in pain.