Decompression

June 2nd we took Hailey to Monroe Carroll Jr. Children’s Hospital for Decompression surgery. We arrived at the hospital a little early and right away Hailey made a friend. There was a little stage there with a piano. She and this cute little girl danced around as I played the piano. It was so good that they we had time to do this because, it really calmed Hailey’s nerves.

Before Hailey went back to surgery the nurse dressed up Hailey’s doll. The doll stayed with Hailey throughout the surgery and seemed to help her cope. The stay in the waiting room seemed like an eternity, but the surgery only took an hour and a half. Chris and I went back with her while she was in recovery. It was a scary thing to see my daughter so out of it and just laying there in bed. We were there about 30 minutes when they took us up to PICU.

We spent one long night in PICU. Hailey was in a lot of pain, but  they gave her all kinds of medications to help. The nurses were were great, and looked after her well. I cried the first time I saw her incisions.

The next day they took Hailey to a room on the acute unit.  It was my understanding, that she would be seen by an PT to help get her up and moving around, and that she would not be able to go home until she was up moving around, eating well, and had good pain management. When the PT came she looked at her and did not really get her out of bed. She said that Hailey looked well, and that she would come by later that day with some neck exercises. The nurse that we had was just awful. She ignored us the whole day and when I would ask for pain meds, she would say, “I’ll go check, but would not return.” It was a very confusing day for us, and Hailey really wanted to go home. We finally found out that she would be staying the night. When the Doctor came in the next morning he said that she was ready to go home. It wasn’t until about 2:00 that we were released.

The trip home went well. She had pretty good pain management. And so began the road to recovery.