1st Night On the Ward

It's nice that jessica is out now ICU because we know she is officially out of the woods :)  Hard part now is that she doesn't have the "one on one" care that was given in ICU.  The ward nurses are extremely busy and short staffed (can't blame them) and when we got to the ward, her pain medication wasn't given on time.

I feel steve and I walk a razor edge on so many decisions when it comes to decisions on surgeries and medication.  Do we or don't we give her a shot of morphine....knowing how it effects her.  There are difficult decisions that we make and realize there are no easy answers.  Once a decision is made we don't dwell on wishing we'd done things differently, because It could parlyze our future decisions.   The decison was to give her morphine.  It settled her pain, but gave her the twitches again.  I've pretty much had to stay by her bed so she wouldn't pull at her tubes or flip out of bed.  I'm counting down until midnight (2 hours, 21 minutes, 48 seconds) before she can get another shot of ketorolac.  She seems so much better on that stuff.

5 Star Rating

Jessica is now out of ICU and on the regular ward....Woohoo!!!  She hasnt had the weird muscle twitching since they switched over her pain meds.  They are still watching her blood pressure which is a bit low and her hemoglobin which is mildly low.  All this is quite normal after so much blood loss.

Now about the hospital rooms...WOW!!!

Has a recliner and pullout couch!

Small desk

Flat screen tv with cable :)

Our own bathrooms with a shower!!

Now all we need is room service to deliver the food :)....oh wait,  thats Steve...lol!

We already put our review on trip adviser...lol!  This hospital is absolutely AMAZING!!!  Steve and I are completely blown out of the water how nice it is.   They designed it for the patients and the family staying.  I really wish we were here for the last 5 surgeries!

My Brown Eye Girl

Yeah!!!!

Eyes are open....and looking around :)

Still pretty puffy.

We brushed her teeth with a sponge and Steve was able to clean the blood out of her nose left from the tube.  

She looks so much better since they changed her to ketorolac :)

Holding Pattern

Looks like we will be staying in ICU for a bit.  During the Doctors rounds jessica starting doing a funny twitching motion with her face and shoulder.  Her eyes would widen when this happened which looked a bit painful for her.  They didn't think it was a seizure because her vitals during that time stayed the same.  They do want to keep her a bit longer for observation just in case this is related to pain management.  They have changed her pain medication to ketorolac.  She did really well on this last time.

Now we watch her face to tell us how's she's feeling.  I think (and I say think because I'm constantly watching her body signals) Jessica has daily pains and I truly feel she doesn't know what "pain free" is.   I suppose only those who have gone through such a surgery would really understand the various pains scoliosis can bring to the human body.  My muscle pains or other people's growing pains probably don't even touch the levels of aches, throbs, or soreness that jessica deals with daily.

As I'm typing, they have just started  to run some clear fluids through her g-tube.  Day 2 has the reputation for being the worst.  The heavy drugs that they put directly into her spine is wearing off and the narcotics we are giving her can cause nausea.  Hopefully the anti-emetics work!!  They are giving her ondasatron.  This is something that they give cancer patients.  It's very well known to help with nausea.  So far so good with jess :)

Good Night

Jess had a good night.  They gave her pain medication every hour on the hour to make sure she had a restful night.  Her oxygen and blood pressure has come up.  Blood work was taken last night which showed her platelets are low.  This is ok after such an intense surgery.  We will wait to see if they come up on their own.  She also vomited twice last night, but not much came out because she has nothing in her stomach.

Sleeping peacefully

Looks like they will be sending us down to the regular ward today :) pretty excited to see it.  The nurses were telling us how nice it is :) This hospital is so amazing!

Better By The Minute

Jessica had adjustable rods that had to be lengthened approxinayely every 6-12 months to keep up with her growth.  Today those were removed and a full spinal fusion was carried out.  This was a major operation where the spine is straightened using screws, rods and bone grafts from t3 to her pelvis which will be left in permanently.  

Longest moments in my life....waiting to get the go ahead to see jessica after surgery.   Waiting I think is the hardest part.  I keep thinking....Jessica is the strongest girl I know.  Amazing that a 10 year old (soon to be 11 Sept 29th!) claims that title in my life.  She has endured being poked with needles so many times in her tiny arms, has had multiple surgeries,  numerous CT scans/ MRI and has spent numberous days in the hospital in such a short time span.  Through it all, she has handled it with more strength and courage that I ever could!

Pulls on the heart strings seeing her like this :( 

An hour and a half after talking to the surgeon we got to see her.   She looked good considering what she's been through!   She had a breathing tube left in due to some fluid around her lungs.  After a couple of hours, they took the tubes out and she was breathing on her own.  Her o2 levels and blood pressure were a bit low so they still gave her some oxygen and will monitor her blood pressure.

Breathing on her own :)

Now we watch her eye and face movemnts for pain :(  Fingers crossed for a good night :)

Out Of Surgery

Its 3:45 and Dr Ouelette just came out to talk to us... he is happy with the way the surgery went.  It was about a 6 hour surgery and around 2pm, her blood pressure started dropping and she lost over 1.5 litres of blood which is reportedly a lot for her size.  She is stable now and they are just prepping her for ICU.  She will remain on intubation because she has fluid on her lungs.  The next little bit will be rough on her and she's not completely out of the woods yet.

ICU Bed Issues....AGAIN!

Sorry for the late post....but I forgot my phone at the hotel during the busy morning routine. 

 Jess had a very restless night which made for a very early morning. We arrived at the hospital shortly after 7am. 

The new hospital

Steve once again began the running around to get the important paperwork filled out.

Waiting patiently

We didn't get to see Dr Ouellette until around 9:00am and once again, he was still in his street clothes. This was not a good sign :(. We heard the dr's talking in the hall and it sounded like another unexpected trama came in. Dr Ouellette was making a good case for us because we already had to postpone surgery once. 

SURGERY IS A GO!!!!!

 We were told it will be a long surgery and the dr will come out and talk to us after its done. He told us we would probably see Jess around 4ish. 

Jessica's back before surgery

 Jess holding mom and dad's hands

 Now we wait :(

Take Two

Let's try this one more time :)

We are back in Montreal and Jess is tucked snug in bed.  We have an early morning tomorrow.  I will keep everyone posted.

Today Is Not The Day

Surgery was booked for 8am today.  I knew it wasn't going to be good news when I saw the surgeon still in his street clothes at 830.   Due to a unexpected trauma that came in, Jessica's surgery was postponed.  They had a meeting and discussed that Jessica would need to be intubated and would also  require some blood transfusions which will be hard on her lungs.  Everyone agreed that the intensity of the surgery was too risky not to have the ICU bed available.  So now the surgery is booked for Monday morning....if no traumas come it!

Montreal Bound

Rain, rain, and more rain!

The weather hasn't been the best this weekend.  Non stop rain to the point where we are all thinking we should start building an ark!

What to do when it's raining....go shopping! :). 

Tonight we are Montreal bound.  We've been well fed (thank you Penny and Tiff) and well rested.  Now we have to get Jessica ready for her big day tomorrow.  Tonight we will bath her in a solution to prep her for surgery.  We will also have to do that in the morning before heading to the hospital.  This is to ensure she is well disinfected so no "bugs" will cause an infection.  We are told that they have booked the Operating Room for the whole day due to the complexity of the surgery and also to be prepare how intense this will be on Jessica.  Soooooo....Here we go!!!

Chilling By The Pool :)

Looks like we are only going to have one day of sun while we are visiting.  Soooooo...we made the best of it :)  

Love this picture!

The boys and Jessica were the only brave enough to go in the pool yesterday.  I was told the pool was sitting at 80...but my big toe disagreed!!!

Jess enjoying her morning movies in the trailer whil she feeds.

The leaves are FALLING!!!!....ugh!

Missing my Everything...

...Steve and Jess :)

I'm pretty lucky to have a person in my life to take situations head on!  Right now Steve is in Montreal for the pre-op before Jessica's spinal fusion.  With all jessicas surgeries and appointments, Its difficult to stretch my vacation and sick time.  The weekend can't come fast enough!  I'll be meeting up with them Friday after work in Ottawa to spend some quality time with the salmon family before heading back to Montreal Monday night.

Tuesday morning will be busy!  We have done this so many times, but now we will be in the new hospital.  This means...WE HAVE NO IDEA WHERE TO GO!!!...ugh.

We knew the routine at the old hospital like the back of our hand.   I'm nervous but excited at the same time.  New hospital might mean Jess gets her own room !  I've always found that part hard...sharing a room with one to three other families.  This will help in jessicas recovery :)

Heading Home

We are heading back home today...yeah! We are going to keep Jessica home from school for the next couple of days.  Monday she will be back to her regular routine with school.

Discharged!

Down to imaging for X-rays this morning  

Daddy and jess

Jess did awesome!  Now we wait to hear from ortho to see how the X-rays are. This always seems to take the longest. The dr's are very busy. Once we get the ok...we are outta here :)

Woohoo!!  Heading back to Ottawa for the night.

Jess locked and loaded!  See everyone soon :)

Little Miss Sunshine

She's BACK!!!!

Big smiles for mom and dad this morning :)

Last night was pretty good in comparison to past surgeries. Jess has remained on her pain medication (ketorolac and Tylenol ) and antibiotics.  She had an ok sleep. I couldn't leave her side because she would startle herself and practically flip over the rails!  Jessica is sensitive to noises and all the beeps and buzzards would jolt her out of her sleep.   Around 3am her stomach was bothering her. She vomited a small amount but the nurses gave her MAXERON and no issues since.

Right now she is taking her full feed at her regular rate along with some puffs that she LOVES.

The Dr was in early on his morning rounds. GREAT news...once we get her X-rays and she finishes her last dose of antibiotics, we can leave!  Woohoo!!!!  We might be able to leave tonight if no complications.

A first!!!!

Yeah MAXERON!  

Wow...this has never happened!  We just finished Jessica's first feed and NO vomiting!! This medication will now top our list of "things that work".  There has not been one surgery, until now that she hasn't had a "pukapolooza".  

It's funny how a lot of the nursing staff and doctors who look after/treat Jessica never forget her.   Jessica has developed quite a routine after ever surgery. Groggy from the anesetic, to vomiting shortly after waking up, to pukapolooza after the first feed, to bowel issues!  Haha...not this time. This is sooooo awesome! After 6 surgeries, we maybe have found something that works :)))

Day one has always been a tuff day up until today!  Jessica isn't her typical smiling self, but we have jumped huge hurtles in the stomach issues post surgery. 

We got a great email from her class with a video of the kids singing. Thank you, thank you, thank you...it's the first time a smile has crossed her beautiful face :)

Road to Recovery

Nothing unexpected.  Jess was groggy when she woke up and then nausous from the anesthetic shortly after.  The staff were on it and gave her gravel and maxeron ( not sure how to spell it). it's  a anti nausea medication that jessica has never had.  We will see if it helps...

Poor Jess!  Not her finest moment :(

They have moved Jess down to the regular ward.  She still isnt 100% herself but getting better :)

Still no smiles, but at least shes sitting up and watching some tv.

Surgery Day

Jess went into surgery this morning around 9:00 am.  Dr Ouellete was able to talk to us prior to jess going into surgery.  He was thinking it should be a straight forward lengthening which would take about 1.5 hours before we would see her in recovery.   

We got to see jess inrecovery around 11:00.

She is a little groggy from the anesthetic.

Dr Appointment update

Here we go again!  

My little SUPER girl

Last week Jessica had her pre-op appointments in Montreal. Great news from the surgeon. Jessica's curve is holding around 36 degrees.  This is the FIRST time Dr Ouellette has said he's "happy". He is thinking Monday's lengthening may be the last!  Usually we get x-rays three months after surgery, however this time it will be 5 months after :))))  

Jessica has on going issues with her bladder. Recent tests has shown left kidney measures 2cm smaller than her right one. This is something the doctor wants to keep an eye on.  Jessica is still not fully emptying her bladder so she will continue with her medication indefinitely. We will do more testing in Orillia when we get back.  

This weekend we will be down time with the family. Aunt Arleane organized an amazing party for Penny and we got to celebrate nanny's 70th BIRTHDAY  :)

Sunday night after dinner we will make the trip back to Montreal. Jessica's surgery is scheduled for Monday morning. I'll keep the blog updated.