This past week was Thanksgiving, and our family truly had lots to be thankful for with Titanium Girl home and growing stronger (and straighter!) day-by-day. We went to Thanksgiving at my sister’s house, equipped with lots of extra pillows and blankets, and Titanium Girl actually held up a lot better than I expected she would. She went up and down a full flight of steps for the first time since before surgery. She sat up for awhile and ate reasonably well. She was surrounded by lots of family who were all happy to see her, especially her younger cousin E. who planned out an agenda (quite literally) of things to do with her which included “snuggle time” first and foremost as well as the presentation of a very special Build-a-Bear for Titanium Girl that E. had personally picked out to go along with a similar one she’d created for herself. My out-of-state cousins and their wives presented Titanium Girl with a basket of goodies–books, nail polish in her favorite colors, candy flavored lip gloss–that she absolutely loved. She even squeezed in some gaming time. Other than needing to lay down some and taking things slowly, she could have been mistaken for any of the other kids at Thanksgiving.
But obviously she wasn’t, and after about 4 hours, she was ready to go home. We planned our exit around her medication times, drove home, and got her into bed. She had a rough night where the pain medication didn’t seem to be kicking in much for her, and the next morning didn’t seem much better. I knew the spine center was closed for the holiday still, but had an on-call who could handle things if need be. Dr. I-Forgot-His-Name-As-Soon-As-He-Said-It looked through her chart and we talked over options since her prescriptions aren’t simple things that can be called in. I wondered if the increased activity could have exacerbated things for her, and he agreed that was a distinct possibility. He suggested doubling her pain pill, though I wondered if that might be a bit much for a kid of her weight. He didn’t think so, but he did say it would be perfectly fine if I’d rather just add a half pill rather than another entire pill. Of course, this means we’ll run out of the script sooner than intended, so I’ll still need to call in on Monday to talk to our surgeon, but this would at least get us through the weekend. She didn’t need the extra half-pill every dose, but it did seem to help the rough patches, and she definitely got better sleep Friday night than she had Thursday night.
