Once they finally got her IV started (3 tries) we were taken up to our room. When they first try rooming us they put us in a semi private room. Let's think about this a nursing mom and a newborn baby in a private room, how much sense does that make. My emotions were already at an all time high so this didnt go over very well. After my emotional breakdown they moved us to a private room, where we would stay for the next week. We attempted to get some sleep as we wouldn't know the game plan until the morning.
Nuerosurgeons came in the morning and explained to us that Nora is on the schedule for surgery on Wednesday afternoon for a VP Shunt. For those of you who are not familar with what that is it is a tube that goes from her brain to her abdomen cavity to drain the fluid from her brain. Wow, our baby girl is going in for brain surgery. I don't think I have ever been so scared yet trying to be so brave in my entire life. Since we nothing was going to happen until Wednesday we tried to just relax all day Tuesday.
I am not sure if we slep much Tuesday night but did the best could. Wednesday morning came and I was trying to pretend I was okay but deep down inside I was terrified. Thank goodness I had the support of my wonderful husband and my family. I would be lying if I didnt say Wednesday was a very stressful day. Thank goodness they let us feed her breastmilk until 10am and then pedialyte until noon. Well we thought that was going to hold her over but of course they delayed surgery for almost 3 hours so Nora was a hungry little girl. Finally the warning call we had been anxiously waiting for, the OR was on the way upstairs to get her. My heartsank and my hands were trembling. This was it.
Freddy and I were able to take her to the "redline" in the OR and then we had to hand her over. Clinched to her tight I was not ready to pass my daughter to some stranger who I was trusting her life with. How do you put all your faith and trust in someone you are meeting for the first time. I knew God was with my baby girl and I put my trust and faith in Him...thats all I could do.
There we were walking out of the OR where we would just wait. My parent, Freddy's mom and sister came that morning so we all waited together. Freddy's cousin Jake came later in the afternoon as well. We were told that surgery would take about 2 hours and the doctors would be out as soon as Nora was out of surgery. An hour and twenty minutes after we left the OR Dr. Jackson came our to let us know surgery was done. The minute he said "she did great and everything went perfectly" I felt a huge sense of relief. I knew we still have a long road ahead of us but the scariest part was over. Our baby girl was okay.
Freddy and I were allowed to go back to the recovery room to see her. I have never been do happy to hold my baby girl in my harms. After a quick x-ray to check placement we were headed back up to our room. By the time we had gotten back up to our room it was past 8pm. It was such a LONG day. Since everyone had to drive back to Des Moines and it was getting so late they came in to see her for a couple minutes and then headed home.
As you probably would guess Nora was pretty out of it for a while after surgery. We tried feeding her some pedialyte for a couple of feeding post surgery to see how she would handle it. You could tell she had a sore throat from being intabated so eating was a little bit of a struggle. Good thing is she never did get sick to her stomach after surgery, she was just slow to eat. Around 11pm we had to go down for an MRI to check everything out and see how it was draining. Around 2 am finally time to try and get some sleep.
The next few days were all about getting her shunt settings right and getting her to have a bowel movement. We struggled with her shunt settings as the fluid in her brain drained too quick as she responded to the shunt too well. Saturday morning then felt they were stable enough for us to beable to go home, they still were not perfect but we could keep working on things from home rather than being in the hospital.
No comments:
Post a Comment