We have emerged from our hospital stay. Whew, what a crazy few days. It all started at 3am when we had to get up to get to the hospital by 5:30am. We hit every single green light. We were in the hospital at 4:30. The check in guy said "You know you can't go up there until 5:30, right?" Um. No, I didn't. So I found an uncomfortable bench and did a Bible Study, while Ladybug slept. Finally we were allowed upstairs and the process of waiting began. Wait to check in, wait to be weighed, wait to see the nurse, wait to see the anesthesiologist, wait to see the doctor. Then the hard part of waiting came in, waiting for her to come out of surgery. There was a small delay, her awesome GI doctor had to assist the surgeon. He really didn't want to do the surgery the GI doctor had recommended. He said we could come back in eight weeks and add the Jejunostomy part later. I didn't want her to have to go through another surgery, so he said he'd "try" to do it at one time. He couldn't, but our GI doctor saved the day and got it done. I paced and tapped. I couldn't get my computer logged into to the connection so I read, and paced some more.
Finally they called me to recovery. Poor girl was out cold. Her little eyes kept fluttering and then closing. Her belly looked okay, not what I had imagined, but not too scary.
We were taken upstairs and settled into our room. All the tubes and attachments had me a bit freaked out. Our roommates were blasting Spanish music and very annoying toys. Thankfully they were discharged after a few hours. I settled in for the afternoon, waiting for Johnny to get there. Doctors came in and out and no one was really answering my question. "I have NO idea what I'm doing." We had two really fantastic nurses. They got as many answers as possible. Home health people came and went. We were told we were staying two nights.
I prepared for that. Johnny stayed the first night with her, so I could relieve the babysitters. My brother stayed the first night, which was an amazing help. Ladybug was doing well, but we still didn't know how to feed her or anything. The tv channels weren't so great, and I don't watch much t.v. anymore anyway, so I read a bunch of junk tabloids. I did watch the Zimmerman trial because it was rather entertaining. Mostly, I watched my girl.
There's a funny story I have with the diapers they use in hospitals. I always thought newborn babies had a certain scent. That scent always went away when we left the hospital. Well, Sam was hospitalized at 5 weeks old for RSV and I smelled the same scent, that newborn scent. Only then, after 3 children did I realize the newborn scent was really the diapers they used! Maybe you had to be there, but it was so funny. This time at least I realized what the scent was, and it wasn't a newborn. It's such a pleasant scent to me, that I almost teared up.
Finally finally the nutrition people came and showed me how to run the machine and we got charted some more with how much to feed her, and then we were told to go home. Just hours before we thought we were spending the night again (I even had sitters lined back up). We said goodbye to our nurses, and I was able to leave a nice note for them, because of the awesome binder that was made for us came with note cards. So we went to leave and it's POURING. We used valet and got girly comfy and left. It, literally, took 35 minutes just to get out of the hospital complex because of the rain and time (5pm) and traffic.
And then we were home. We had to figure out how to get all this stuff in the house and get her set up. I felt like I was coming home with a newborn. I was tired (though not in pain), meals were delivered, new things to learn, even laying everything out for a diaper change. But, we figured it out. The night went really well. Carlee is sleeping in her swing for now because the tubes stay on all the time, and I'm terrified of her pulling it out. After it heals it will be okay, but right now it would mean another surgery. So we're keeping her confined. She slept really well. The machine woke me up with a terrifying beep at 4am, but that was the only exciting thing that happened.
So we're settling in to our nearly charted path. I'm sure we'll get it all figured out soon. I'll be happy when post op visits are done and we can get on with our lives. Thanks everyone for your help and your prayers!
