Day 1 Coming To An End

If you haven't read the previous post, read it and you'll be up to date.

Today has been good- long but good. We started this morning at 6:45, so everyone got to sleep in! Brian's mom and aunt are here, so they got Olivia ready for school while Brian and I finished last minute necessities before taking Ian to the hospital. The morning went smoothly, and we made it on time, no problems. Check in went great, and we soon started making the rounds of consults- primary nurse, social worker, physical therapist, anesthesiologist, resident, x-ray, blood draw, molds for new splints, and finally the surgeon came in around 6:30 or so this evening. Ian did great during all the appointments except rehab and x-ray. By that time, he had pretty much had it, and was needing a break. We got through it though, and he quickly recovered before we moved on to the next thing.

Nanna and Helen brought Olivia up for dinner, and she had had a good day and was enjoying all the attention. She does great with change and just goes with the flow, which is about a necessity in this family! Tomorrow will probably be lots of shopping and maybe a trip to the library.

Back to Ian and his surgery. The overview of the surgery is in the last post. We have a few more details, which involves taking some bone from where they make the cut on his leg and inserting it into the top of the cup. I was under the impression they might be scraping the inside of the cup, but that isn't correct. They insert this bone, kind of reforming the cup and extending it and then stitch some cartilage (or tendons I always get those confused for some reason). They make sure the femur is good and secure in the cup, so that it can't slip out. That's what I understand to be the procedure. One thing we were hoping not to happen that is going to is he is going to have to have the spika cast- body cast. If you aren't familiar with it, it will come to the waist area and got to the tips of his toes on both legs with a bar in between. The other option was less restrictive, but we were not given the choice, which is probably best. Of course we'll manage, and I just don't think about it too much. My reaction when he gets out of surgery tomorrow may come flying out, but we'll deal with that when the time comes. Who knows, with Ian, he may be fine with it. I just don't think about putting myself in his shoes because I don't think I would do so well!

Anyway, the plan for tomorrow is meds will start at 6:00 am, wheel him up at 6:45, and surgery starts at 7:00. It should last about 3 1/2 hours. We will wait in the family room, and they will call us throughout to let us know how he's doing. He will be in intensive care about 24 hours with his own nurse and respiratory therapist in his room at all times. We will be allowed in during the day, but at night Brian (who is at home tonight) will stay upstairs in a guest room. Thursday night I will stay and be able to stay in his room with him. Looks like we'll leave Friday night or Sat morning- depending on how he's doing and how comfortable we are. One of the many great things about Shriners is they aren't in any hurry for you to go home. You can stay as long as you feel like you need to. When we are ready to leave, they will loan us a special harness for the car since of course Ian won't be able to sit. I don't know how it works, but with the cast, he'll be flat, so he'll be stretched across the seat. They will want him to stand at least one hour each day (in a stander) and be up and about (in a reclining wheelchair) as much as possible- which I guess means around the house and going for walks, because I can't imagine going too many places!! If he does as well this time as he did with the ankles, we'll be good in good shape. It is a lot more involved surgery, but we have no reason to think he won't be a trooper again.

It's after 10:00. Ian is sound asleep so I'm going to get ready for bed, and read my book for a little bit. They'll be in at midnight to check vitals and then again at 4:00 am, and then two hours later we'll be rocking and rolling!

Say your prayers, and we'll be back on here tomorrow with an update or two.

Leah