April marked the month I've started to think of as Hospital Month. We scheduled Shayli's second surgery to finish removing her birthmark. (If you will recall, we started this process almost 2 years ago. Right when we were in the middle of moving. Just worked out that way. ) Anyway, we were able to schedule the surgery for first thing in the morning so we arrived at the hospital at 6 am. We wanted to get up early because Shayli had to fast (no food or water) before the surgery. She was a little nervous about the appointment because she has a big brother who felt the need to inform her that the "doctor was going to cut off her birthmark." Which is exactly what was going to happen but I wasn't going to tell her that! She started relaxing as soon as they gave her markers and told her she could draw on her sheets, watch a movie, or play with toys! This was starting to feel like a party!!
Until the happy juice came. Shayli HATES any kind of medicine. She never wants to take it and it's always such an ordeal if she does have to. It took some bribing but she finally swallowed it. After that she was feeling gooooood. And was a little loopy.
We were told the surgery would take about an hour. Her first surgery 2 years ago took about 45 minutes and the recovery was so easy. We were expecting it to be the same kind of thing. We were wrong. The surgery ended up taking
3 hours! I was starting to get a little worried. And Ryan was taking a nap. (Sounds so much like the first time I went into labor it was almost like dejevu.....)
The doctor finally came out and told us she was able to remove the rest of the birthmark which we were grateful for. Right before they took Shayli back she had mentioned that she might have to remove half right then and the rest in a few months. I didn't even know what to say about it. I couldn't imagine doing all this again. I feel so bad for all those parents and children who have chronic illnesses and this is just part of their life. And then all I could think was I had called a few months after Shayli's first surgery to set up the second surgery and I was told we needed to wait at least a year so the skin could regenerate. So we did. And then I was told we had waited too long and the congenital nevi had grown so much that we would still need two more surgeries?!?! I was speechless.
Anyhoo, it ended up working out for us. After her surgery she was immediately asking for donuts. Who can blame her? I always feel like the post-op part is the hardest because Shayli is hungry and tired and just wants to go home. And so was I. We finally got cleared to leave and Shayli was able to ride in style to the hospital pharmacy where we picked up her meds.
The recovery was much more than I was prepared for. I had no idea there would be a drain and I also wasn't prepared to make a second appointment to put her under for removing the stitches. That's right. We were doing it again anyway. Possibly twice. Once for the drain and once for the stitches depending on how the wound was healing. Meaning fasting, hours at the hospital, babysitters for the kids. The whole shebang. I just assumed it would be easy peasy like last time....dissolvable stitches and no problems. Well it hasn't been terrible, but it certainly hasn't been like the last time. There was much more skin removed with this surgery. And a few minor complications along the way.
This is what it looked like a week after the surgery.
Shayli accidentally stepped on the drain and pulled part of it out. Luckily it wasn't a lot and we were able to wait until her appointmdent on Monday before we headed back up. The doctor was very accommodating and squeezed us in for our Monday appointment because we had told her we would be up there anyway for Ryan's colonoscopy. I really wanted to get both done at the same time to eliminate an additional trip plus all the arrangements necessary for the rest of my kids that has to happen when I am gone all day. However, Shayli came down with a fever on Saturday night.
I started worrying that all my ingenius planning was going to be for nothing. I talked with my friend who is a pediatrician on Sunday and asked what their policy was as far as putting kids under who were sick. At this point, I was still hoping for a miracle. Plus, I knew the drain had been in longer than our doctor wanted only because she was trying to accommodate our schedule and trying to do the drain and stitches at the same time. I decided to wait and see what happened. I didn't have to wait long. I got home from church and Shayli started throwing up. Ugh. Why????? If the fever wasn't going to ruin the appointment, the vomiting definitely would.
I texted Dr. Keller. (She was kind enough to give me her personal cell phone number. See? Accommodating.) After a lot of back and forth and discussing different scenarios, she told me we could still plan on coming and play it by ear. We had to be up there early for Ryan anyway so poor Shayli was coming along for the ride one way or the other. The biggest problem for me was the fact that she hadn't eaten anything since Saturday night except a string cheese and a little bit of yogurt. And then she started throwing up. She threw up until 5 AM. We left for Sacramento at 7:45. Shayli was allowed clear liquids until 9 and her appt was at 1:00. I tried to get her to drink something. We just got a couple of sips down and that was it. I felt so bad for her and was obviously worried about her getting dehydrated.
We got Ryan all checked in for his super fun procedure and Shayli was excited to see her daddy go through some of the same things she had gone through the week before. She was NOT happy to be back at the hospital. She knew she had another appointment and she had already fallen apart about it a few times. She hated looking at her leg. Anytime anyone needed to see it, she freaked out. She cried just changing the bandages. Like a hysterical cry. I don't even know what to say about it. Except this. It wasn't like last time.
Ryan had his procedure done and over with and Shayli and I were still in the waiting room at the other end of the hospital. Someone brought Ryan over to me in a wheelchair and he stumbled over to the chairs and fell asleep. (It was acceptable this time. :) Long story short, there was a morning surgery that took WAY longer than anyone anticipated. We didn't get in until 3:00. Which is annoying anytime you have a doctor's appointment but is
especially frustrating when your 3 year old hasn't had anything to eat for a day and a half and nothing to drink for hours! I was stressed out. She cried for water and food a few times but overall I think she was so lethargic at that point that just sitting there took effort. I guess I should just be grateful they didn't reschedule us. That's what happened to another family.
When they finally got to us, we decided to skip the happy juice because it would mean we would have to stay longer so she could be monitored. Instead they let Ryan go back to the OR with them and hold her hand until she was put to sleep. They didn't want me back there because I'm pregnant. I was worried about Ryan keeling over but I guess going from "patient to doctor" worked out for him! Shayli's drain removal and stitch removal took about 10 minutes. TEN MINUTES. I guess you wait your turn for an operating room no matter what you have scheduled. Unfortunately, I had no idea how much the happy juice helped until I witnessed Shayli coming out of anesthesia without it. It wasn't pretty. A lot of crying and not much consoling was going on behind our curtain. And everyone knew it.
We were just glad to get it over with and Shayli ate a whole bag of goldfish on the way home. She deserved it.
We are currently still recovering from the whole ordeal. Her leg split open a little bit after the stitches came out and then we had to start treating it like a giant wound. Which it was. A lot of bandaging and wrapping for weeks. We are now about 6 weeks out and while the wound is getting better, there are still little hiccups. We stopped wrapping it for about a week and it started to get infected so we're back to wrapping it every day. But I feel like we are almost there! Thank goodness!
