Long Day at the Hospital

They say there is a first time for everything, but apparently there is also a second - namely Papa blogging while Mama stays with Kaitlynn.

First, for those too eager to hear the whole story of the day, the long and the short of it is the surgery went well. Kaitlynn is in a bit of pain, but they seem to be managing it well.

The day started off early, we were out of the house a little later than we wanted, at 6:15, as we were supposed to be a the hospital no later than 7am. If we hit traffic anywhere, we would be screwed. But someone was looking over our shoulder because it was clear sailing all the way through and we even had 5 min to spare by the time we were parked at the Children's.

Now, I know the old saying "don't do drugs" but anyone who has ever seen a 2 and 1/2 year old on sedatives knows that it's a pretty funny thing. :) In order to make sure Kaitlynn wasn't too stressed going into the operating room, they gave her that same sedative to calm her down, and it just turned her loopy. At one point, while I was holding her with her chin on my shoulder, she just tilted her head, looked at me, and then just started giggling uncontrollably. Don't know what she saw, but it apparently was hilarious. :)

Surgery lasted about 3 hours total, and she spent about two hours in recovery because the nurse there was a little concerned about her high heart rate and the fact that she was still bleeding a little bit from her mouth and nose. A surgeon came to look, finally, and said there was no major bleeding, and it turns out her heart rate had been a bit elevated even during surgery so they just think her baseline is higher than normal. So, in the end we were headed off to the ward.

She spent most of the afternoon in and out of naps, but slept for a good hour or two near the end of the afternoon. She was experiencing some pain at times, and in one case it seemed to come out of nowhere and disappear just as quickly. But the pain is being managed and when I left at about 7pm, she was quite intently watching Cars and seemed to be in a good place.

Momma has the first night shift. I'm going to head back to the hospital tomorrow with the intent of spending the night. If all goes well, we hope to have Kaitlynn home by Thursday sometime. Generally they like to give 48 hrs of antibiotics (3 doses over 24 hrs in the IV, then 3 more doses over 24 hours orally) - they started at 5pm today, so the last dose should be Thurs morning. That's a likely time for her to come home, but not certain. We'll know more as we get closer to Thursday.

Thanks to everyone who've been thinking about us. It's good to know that so many people care.

Well, it's late, and Papa needs his rest for tomorrow. I'm sure Stef will have more to say when she gets home (and can correct all those details I've mis-remembered :).

Greg