Amputation Surgery Day / Hospital Stay (July 2015)

Surgery day was July 1^st, 2015. The night before I had to call in to get her surgery time. To be honest.. I was probably a little rude to the poor lady on the phone when I found out her surgery wasn’t scheduled until 11am. All I could think was that we were going to have an extremely grouchy 3 year old on our hands because she was going to be starving. She wasn’t allowed to eat from after dinner that night before until after her surgery. I was pleasantly surprised though with her attitude and that not eating didn’t seem to affect her. (I would have been whining so bad! Another awesome thing about kids. They just take things as they are and run with it)

We got up the morning of her surgery and got ready and what not. We had to be at the hospital by 9, so we left our house at 8:25 or so. My mom came in the day before to help out with the other two munchkins so Joel and I could be at the hospital pretty much 24/7.

We got to the hospital a little before 9 and started the check-in process.

Waiting with Merida to be called back.

 After they called us back she got her little hospital bracelets and met a lot of the nurses.

 They then took her weight and height etc..

Then we were brought into her room where we hung out for about an hour while the different doctors, nurses and anesthesiologists came in and met us / explained how things were going to work.

Sydney took right to the place. The hospital's (Shriners) Child Life specialist came in with different movies, a few new toys (like the cute Merida barbie that's sandwiched between large Merida and Sydney) an iPad to play with etc, to help entertain Sydney while the adults talked.

They then had Sydney take some medicine that would make her loopy / help her to not be scared when they took her back. Boy did it work. She also got dressed into her hospital gown.

The toddler hospital gown swallowed Sydney. It was adorable.

Then we followed one of the nurses while they wheeled her off to the surgery side of the hospital.

Sydney was being so funny by this point. The nurses came in to meet Joel and I and to take her off to the actual operating room and right before they did, Sydney said she needed to go potty. They all filed out of the room and we headed to the bathroom quickly. Sydney was sooo loopy and talking slowly etc. When we sat her on the toilet she said "I almost pooped my bed." So good.

A few last pictures before they wheeled her out.

Wheeling her off to the surgery room.

Neither Joel nor I cried that day. I was fully expecting that I would cry. I am a cry-baby after all.. but no tears. It was strange. As Joel and I walked away after taking the picture of them wheeling her into the operating room Joel and I talked about whether or not the doctors/nurses were surprised or thought it was weird that we WEREN'T crying. Everyone we talked to told us to prepare for tears.. But I honestly didn't feel emotional. I'm sure it had a lot to do with 2 things. We had SO many wonderful people praying on our behalf and had so much support from our friends and family. Number two, we were really mentally prepared for this. We felt really ready and felt that we had just made the right decision (later even more so felt this way after hearing the doctor's debriefing). As annoying as it was to have to postpone her surgery because Sydney got sick, I think that even helped us feel that much more prepared as well. We so badly just wanted to get it over with and be on the other side of things. We also were tired of quarantining Sydney and the entire family that when it did happen it was such a relief.
They told us that the surgery would take about 2 1/2 hours and that we would probably be able to see her in about 3-3 1/2 hours, but it took 3 1/2 hours ish and we didn't see her until 4 1/2 ish hours later. Joel and I watched episodes of Parenthood in her hospital room which helped pass the time, but we were totally anxious to see her / hear how it all went by the time our little buzzer buzzed ( think of a dinner waiting list buzzer  thing). About a minute or so later our Doctor came in and gave us the rundown on how it all went.
First off- she started off by saying that she did great. She said Sydney went back smiling and laughing until the watermelon gas knocked her out.
Then she went  on to describe how the actual surgery went. She said that after going inside she really felt like it was the right decision. There were a few things that really made it feel like it was the right choice.

1. There were coalitions between 3 of the bones that we couldn't see from the x-rays because they were just tissue coalitions that would have eventually turned into bone. Meaning that she would have had a big mass of bone in her heel that basically would have made her lose almost all her range of motion in her ankle. For those of you that want specifics, I will get as specific as I can based on my short-hand notes I got while our Doctor was talking. The Talus and Calcaneus were completely  fused.  Then there were coalitions of the Calcaneus and the cuboid, as well as the cuboid and the the Tibia and the Talus. These were basically the main things that made it feel like the right decision, the rest were just cool / interesting facts.

2. They couldn't find her Dorsal Pedis artery. If you look at the folowing picture.. I'm not really sure how her foot got blood... I'm guessing that the artery from her anterier tibia must have just split at the top of the foot? I have no clue.. but the doctor was really surprised by this as well. She said she kept looking for it because she fully expected her to have one. Everyone has one. But that's just another affect of Fibular Hemimelia. Things just don't form like normal.

3. She had extra muscle padding on the underside of her heel. It's normal to have some muscle under your heel, but apparently she had extra muscle, more than normal. This apparently will be really good for her because it will be extra padding for her stump.

4. Also, a random fact. Sydney's doctor sewed her Achilles tendon to her front tendon. Apparently a lot of kids if they have a tight Achilles can have their Achilles pull their heel pad up and then they have to have their surgery done again or just leave it I believe. Our doctor already knew that she had a tight Achilles so she went ahead and attached it to a tendon that is on the front to prevent it from doing that. She also explained that somehow the body creates new veins and such somehow. They basically clamp off the veins and the body just figures out how to grow new ones and circulate the blood. The body is one amazing creation!

It took about another 45ish minutes before they brought her in to us. She had already eaten one popsicle and was getting started on her second. She was really groggy but was in a pretty ok mood overall.

 

As the day went on though her mood went more and more sour. She refused to nap and finally decided to go to sleep at about 10pm that night. She woke up every few hours (usually thrashing) saying her stump was hurting or screaming that there were spiders on it. the next few days at the hospital were pretty rough. She had quite a bit of trouble with phantom pains and muscle spasms. Sydney was really irritable and tired most the time. She didn't get near enough sleep the whole time we were there, which makes any child irritable, much less a child that's just had a major surgery.. Joel and I switched off nights, I took the first night with her and he took the second. We made it down to the cafeteria a few times to eat though which was a great change of scenery. Sydney's mood improved quite a bit each time we were able to get out of the room.

 

 

The night I stayed at the hospital, Sydney woke up at about 5am and was wide awake, so I turned on a movie for her. I fell asleep about 30 minutes later and woke up about 10 minutes after that to her complaining that the "stuff" had gotten all over her.. She had managed to pull out her IV and had NO CLUE that that was blood that was all over her. She kept pointing to the IV stuff and saying that it was spilling stuff all over her.lol I couldn't help but laugh, because I knew that if she knew it was blood she would have been SCREAMING.lol We called in a nurse and got it all cleaned up. Somehow we got lucky and Sydney's doctor authorized her to not have to have a new IV put in. P.s. sorry for the gruesome picture..

On the evening of the second day we went out to the gym to play a little. Sydney got a little too adventurous and unfortunately pulled out her epidural/nerve block. The anesthesiologist came in and said she would be alright without it. Thank heavens because they would have had to take off her cast and such to get a new one in. That night was pretty rough for Sydney though.. and poor daddy that stayed with her too.

 We watched LOTS of movies and Sydney ate lots of snacks/ice chips while we were there.

Luckily Sydney fell asleep on the way home from the hospital. She was due for her meds and we had to wait 30 minutes to get them from the pharmacy that was downtown.

It wasn't the worst experience ever.. but it definitely wasn't fun. She has recovered really well though. Things have only gone up, like WAY up.:) She has her appt to have her cast removed on TUESDAY! I can't believe how quickly the time has flown! I'll  post soon with more detail on how the recovery went. Thanks everyone for all the love and support!!