Alright, let's back up.
Saturday was when I wrote that post. But FRIDAY is when all that stuff happened.
Friday night she started having muscle cramps when we took the traction off, first her feet then her calves. By about 9 am Saturday, I'd had enough of THAT. I told the nurse, "look, at home I'd give her calcium/magnesium, I'd move her around a lot, I might give her tylenol or motrin, I'd take her out of traction, for awhile. What do you suggest?" She went and got us a banana and some milk and the doctor. This was our lady doctor (she is a Resident and a Fellow, and I don't know the difference...but she was the only lady doctor that I saw) and she agreed that we could go on traction 4 hours on 1 hour off. Sarah was VERY happy with that.
Having an hour out of traction was just lovely. It still only meant about 2 times per day during the time when everyone else was awake...the night time always messed us up because somebody always "forgot" to put her traction back on...shhhh...of course it was me...I only got about 3 hours of sleep most nights and unless the nurse woke me, I slept. After one nurse decided to put Bean back in traction by grabbing her RIGHT (painful) leg and flipping her over (lovely) I asked that they please just wake me...and most of them forgot.
Anyway, she used her 1 hour to visit friends around the hospital and to go outside and play.
Every evening at 8pm when all the kids knew she would be out of traction, they'd gather in our room and wait for her to get into her wheel chair and then they'd all go racing around the halls. It was funny to me. She was the youngest of the group, and they were all MUCH better with their wheel chairs, but they waited for her when she couldn't catch up, didn't crash into her when she made 90 degree turns in front of them and played hide and seek with an exuberance that masked the fact that there are only so many places you can hide in a wheel chair.
I have several pictures, but of other people's kids, don'tcha know.
On Sunday, we knew that we were going to have some child care issues at home. My parents were coming but needed a few extra days. So I talked to the doctor and told him that we would need to leave on Wednesday, but that we could come back Monday, if he felt that was necessary. He didn't, on the condition that she was doing well, no further pain.
There was no further mention of the 30%, but I did ask our Resident what the significance of that 30% was. That 30% ensures that the femoral head CAN tuck under the socket. So then I asked our physical therapist if Bean had 30% mobility and she said, "Well that depends...", on some of Bean's motions she has 30%, some she has more than 30% and some less, but because he didn't qualify WHAT had to be 30%, she didn't know for sure. And I still don't know today. But we are continuing traction at home because in the shorter doses it worked. Plain and simple. It helped with pain. It seemed to help with rotation. And if we can do it here, we'd rather that than the hospital.
On Monday, Bean had an MRI. It was MUCH less stressful for all involved than the first one. She was not sedated, I sat in the room with her, they walked her through everything. Later that day, they asked all the kids (and moms) on the playground if they would come do an MRI photoshoot for some literature they were making. Since Bean had just had an MRI, she said, "SURE"...and here is one of those pictures...the photographer is the guy in the PRIME photo location...
And this is the message that greeted all comers on St. Patrick's Day...written in my girl's own hand...
Seems a great ending to me.
See ya around...
1 comment:
Funny thing is while I was reading this all I kept thinking is that she'll have some wonderful memories of fun and friends.
You, however, will probaly have a nervous twitch when you remember it all. =/
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