Surgery

At the end of August I found out that Maria needed surgery on her leg....she had 2 pins in her leg right above the knee that were working their way out of the bone.  The big concern was that one was pointed towards the main artery in the leg....no one was sure how close it was to the artery.  After what seemed like forever we got the x-rays from Shriners (hint for anyone who isn't 100% sure about their child's initial doctor, leave with a copy of any x-rays in hand....places like Shriners won't release the x-rays to another doctor even with a parental consent). 

We finally got the surgery scheduled for this week.  I was really hoping for the week between Christmas and New Years, but the surgeon wasn't able to do that week.  So, it was either this week or wait until January....figured that we had a better chance of having decent weather this week.  So, it was planned for Tuesday.  We did the whole pre surgery appointment the Friday before. 

We got to the hospital and checked in by 9:30 as expected.  Maria wasn't overly thrilled about this whole process at all, not that I can blame her.  We were quickly taken to a pre surgery room.  Where I had to answer a ton of questions for the hundredth time, but everyone was nice.  We had a great nurse and the anesthesiologist was a hoot.  It also helped that the foundation's founder (Manuela) said that we could Skype with her at any time that day.  Manuela helped to give Maria a little extra comfort prior to surgery....she was also concerned about the surgery and wanted us to call her as soon as Maria was out of surgery.  It just shows how invested people were and still are in Maria.

Yeah, doesn't she looked thrilled

More of a smile

Hanging out with her pillow pet.  

Changed and ready for the operation room, well kind of.

She was so brave!

They were great and allowed me to go back into the OR with her while they put her under....yes, I got to wear all the crazy garb.  She did so well....they gave her a little laughing gas to calm her down then a second gas to knock her out....when the second gas was given she struggled a little and was saying no....a few tears escaped at that point (other than that there were no tears, which I was so surprised about).  At the point she was out, I was out of the OR and sent to the waiting room to wait with my mom. 

The surgery was just at an hour, everything went great.  The doctor came and talked with me.  He said that other than having to make the incision a little bigger than he wanted to (b/c of all the scar tissue) things went well.  He even said she was coming out of sleep and smiled at him when they were wheeling her out.  We were taken to the Recovery Room 1 and got to be with her.  She kept asking when we could leave....she wanted OUT of there!  Couldn't blame her at all for that one.  It took a while for us to get moved to Recovery Room 2 (yes there are 2 stages of recovery).  She was able to eat a little here and drink some juice.  No issues at all. We also did a Skype call with Manuela to let her know how things went.   We finally were released from Recovery room 2 and got her medication (it was suppose to be done at 2:30, yeah right).  We didn't get out of there till after 3pm.  LONG day!

Recovery room 2....she is being a good sport.

This is the "I want out of here now" face

Ok, so here is what I learned:
1.  Maria hates the auto blood pressure machine (but will laugh if you tell her it is just hugging her arm).
2.  Surgery will take ALL day and you will be tired and worn out even if you are the one waiting.
3.  Even doctors will show their stupidity...specifically male doctors.  Now before you judge me on this one, here is the story.  Maria has to wear pullups b/c of her Spina Bifida, she doesn't have bladder or bowel control which is typical.  We put a fresh pullup on her prior to surgery and the nurse noted it on her chart.  Yup, the male doctors took it off her and placed a size 4 diaper kinda under her....I'm pretty sure any mom out there can guess how well that didn't work.  I was rather ticked off about this one since my poor kid had to lay in a bed that had pee all over it.
4.  Hospitals are designed to keep you in once you are there.
5.  There is something wrong about a hospital charging you for parking when you are there for surgery.

Maria is doing great.  She was walking around today and did really well.