I stayed at the hospital last night until around 10:30. They needed to roll Girl Child to her side around 10, and I knew that would be painful, so I wanted to see how it went. She did ok with it, and she was actually starting to perk up some as the anasthesia wore off. I felt like she was doing ok enough for me to leave, so against every mothering instinct in my body, I left, leaving DH at the hospital for the night. I made it home and filled in the in-laws with how she as doing, showed them pictures, then headed to bed after they left. After my brain got quiet around 1am, I actually dropped off for decent sleep, though I was wide awake at 5am, an hour or so earlier than I needed to be awake. Boy Child woke up on his own and we hugged and talked about how his sister is doing. As much as they bicker together, they love each other a lot, and he clearly misses her. He was teary when I told him he may not be able to visit her since he’s got the tail end of a cold. I got him on the bus, picked up some subway for me to eat later, then got a call from DH saying Girl Child was cleared to have a bit of Gatorade if I could pick some up on the way.
Gatorade in hand, I went to the hospital to relieve DH for the day. He was dragging and irritated that the day nurse seemed less quick to respond to issues than the night nurse had been. Girl Child looked good, though she was uncomfortable in the side position they had her in. Flat on her back is the most comfortable position for her right now, but they have to roll her every 2 hours. After DH left, Girl Child and I talked some, and she watched a bit of tv. Her pain level was increasing, and the leg pumping sleeves that prevent clots were uncomfortably tight, hurting her more than her back, which is saying something. I paged the nurse, but she was clearly busy with something going on in another room, so I asked the nurses at the desk if the leg sleeves could be adjusted. One of those nurses was the nurse practitioner assigned to Girl Child, so she came in to help. She removed the leg sleeves, though they’d have to be put back on after an hour. The reprieve helped her, though.
The bigger problem was that her general pain control was no longer cutting it. There wasn’t breakthrough pain because it was all just pain, and she was in tears. Nurse Practitioner S. immediately asked if Girl Child was on anything for muscle spasms. I told her I didn’t think so, and she she was pretty certain that was causing the pain, given what Girl Child had done. She went out to the nurses station to check on things, and Girl Child’s nurse soon came in with a big vial of valium. Unfortunately, valium burns going into the IV, but the relief was worth it. Nurse S. rolled her to her back once the valium was on board, and Girl Child fell asleep almost immediately. Lots of checks of various tubes and cords ensued, and a visit from Child Life that Girl Child woke for. She reported her pain level had come down from a 7 to a 5. Better. And she fell back to sleep again, so bonus. NP S. came back in to check on her. She ordered a muscle relaxer for every 8 hours, and she can have the valium in between if she needs it.
Nurse S. brought the muscle relaxer a short while later along with some colace since the narcotics are slowing down her digestive system. Both were liquids since Girl Child doesn’t yet know how to swallow pills without the help of hiding it in applesauce, which she can’t currently have. She tried a bite of jello before the meds, but wasn’t very interested in it. She took the muscle relaxer fine, but one taste of the colace and she declared, “It tastes like barf!” She was only able to choke down a third of the syringe, then soon said her stomach felt off. I tried to spoon Gatorade into her mouth and I brushed her teeth, but it didn’t take care of the taste. I’m pretty sure having to wretch into an emesis basin while laying flat on your back, sporting a 6 inch abdominal incision, a missing rib, and angry back muscles isn’t on Maria Von Trapp’s list of favorite things 😛 Nurse S. quickly got some Zofran into her for the nausea and declared she wouldn’t need to worry about it for awhile, maybe until tonight. Next up was removal of the arterial line in Girl Child’s wrist that had monitored her blood pressure for surgery. Apparently she couldn’t go to a regular room with that, so it wouldn’t be staying in between surgeries. Nurse S. removed it and declared her ready to move as soon as the regular room was ready for her.
