Living Life By Grace

Monday, September 16, 2013

Free at Last!

Today was the day! Hallelujah!

After 6 long but fairly uneventful (minus the diarrhea in the cast) weeks. We got to see this, not so pretty at the moment, leg!

And we also got to see her stash of cheez-its...and dirt... and various other nasty things...hidden for weeks in the cast.

Other than sensitive skin and a fear of walking, we are good! PT begins first thing tomorrow morning. Would love your prayers that she moves past her fear and begins walking. The better she moves, the faster we can fly home!

Amen and amen

Tuesday, August 20, 2013

2 down, 4 to go

I haven't blogged since we got home... not because my life has been so crazy. But because there isn't much to say! Every detail of this surgery and casting has gone much more smoothly than we anticipated. No doubt because we've been covered in prayer.

Our first few days looked like this:

The boys have been awesome. Serving and loving on their sister (and me!)
Sticker books of all shapes and sizes are her new best friend.

I've found this awesome chair at Target that's an oversize lounge chair basically. Perfect for a cast.

We've had many a Lego battle and days of building forts.

And last but not least, this girl is on the move. I'm actually expecting to see her by my side right now because she doesn't want to nap. Oh but do I need her to nap.

So that's our past week in a nutshell. 4 more weeks to go! Actually 4 weeks from yesterday, so let's say 3 weeks and 5 days. But whose counting?

Sunday, August 11, 2013

Surprise!

Sorry for the lack of posts the past few days. After they weaned Mamie from her epidural, we lost some sleep :) but here are the highlights.

1. Too tight cast means cutting it down. And it cut out the yucky part of her cast! So we are back to clean. Praise!

Downside: total freak out moment before the cast saw was even turned on meant a dose of Ativan (like Valium) to calm her down. Which it did for one hour. And then our sweet daughter wasn't so sweet anymore. Ativan and Mamie just don't mix.

2. Our little precious decided during this freak out moment to pull out her own IV while I wasn't watching. That left quite a mark

3. Not much sleeping once epidural came out. But she responded much better to pain meds than meds mentioned above

4. Released from hospital!

5. After about 3 hours in the hotel room, and 3 tired and cranky people... We made the impulsive decision to go straight to the airport! (Now mind you, Mamie was doing REALLY well over all, and her dr didn't feel like we were going to face any unknown reactions from surgery at this point). So we were off to the airport 2 days early! And by the time we were in the car, Mamie was back to her old spunky, feisty self.

We got creative on the plane and it all went off without a hitch.

And now we are home and all 3 kids are LOVING each other (for the moment). And the boys are fighting over who gets to serve Mamie.

Honestly this whole week went off much better than I anticipated. From surgery, to the cast, to pain, and even sleep. Thank you so much for your prayers. That's all we can attribute this to. We are so thankful now let the fun begin at home!

Thursday, August 8, 2013

Our day in a nutshell

Mamie had a great day! For the first 3 days she has an epidural instead if pain meds so she is completely numb. The anesthesia had worn off and she was back to her old hyper silly self.

We made laps in the little red wagon and even stopped in the playroom for a bit!

She had a blood transfusion, which we are told is completely normal after hip surgery. They were surprised she hadn't needed one before today. And we taped all around the edges of her cast for any future potty accidents that may occur.

Now tomorrow may be a whole different story. You see 2 major things happen tomorrow.

1. Her cast is super tight around her bottom so they are going to cut the fiberglass part of the cast to relieve the pressure. That's loud and scary. ( they will just tape it back together when done?! Not real sure how this is all going to pan out but hey... They are professionals)

2. They wean her off the epidural and begin oral pain meds. We are told this could be a breeze and it could be a total nightmare. You see she doesn't really know she's in pain. Because she's numb. Just that this cast is a nuisance. But tomorrow she will begin to feel the pain- although she will be on plenty of pain medication. So there's our 2 prayer requests! That the cutting of the cast doesn't scare her and scar her for life. And that the transition from epidural to oral pain meds is a breeze.

And by the way... The boys are doing great at home! This week has really gone by quickly so far. I think Charles, Mamie and i miss them more than they miss us. She's asking for "lelly and max" all the time :) and she keeps asking if we are all done now... Sweet thing. Just a few more days!

Wednesday, August 7, 2013

Day 1 post surgery in the books

We actually had a pretty good nights sleep last night... Other than nurses coming in for this and that, but Mamie was great! She woke up chipper this morning.

And then things went down hill for a bit. She just couldn't get comfortable. Some tubes came dislodged here and there.

And at lunchtime the culprit was revealed. Her catheter was blocked. She hadn't gone to the bathroom since last night! I won't go into details on how this was discovered. Lets just say I won't win "mom if the cleanest cast" award. And for those of you that see us in the next 6 weeks, it might be best for you to keep some distance between yourself and Mamie. But I digress... Once that problem was corrected, Mamie took a 3 hour nap and woke up in a much better mood and even ate a little! We wheeled her around the floor in a wagon and let her look at the playroom. No participation today... Maybe tomorrow.

The staff here is wonderful. Very attentive, always seeing what we need alongside Mamie. Answering all of our questions. And they even brought Mamie a huge birthday bag filled with all of her favorites! Strawberry shortcake stuff, stickers, lip gloss. Very sweet.

We've also been able to share our adoption story with many and we pray that God uses it to minister to them in whatever way they need.

She's back down for a little snooze right now. We continue to pray for quick and painless recovery. Lots of rest and sleep. And a supernaturally clean cast.