The day after surgery

Saturday night Sara was up and down a lot. Since she was in the PICU, Craig couldn't sleep in there. So when she would fall to sleep Craig would go into her new room in the Neuro Trama Unit. As soon as he would lie down and almost be asleep the phone would ring and it was either the nurse saying Sara needed him or a few times it was me at home asking questions or Tyler needing to say hi to his dad. To say the least Craig go very little sleep. He is such a little sleeper any way, that even when he was asleep, I doubt he was in REM.

The next morning, they needed to pull out Sara's IV's. Well as you could imagine she flipped out. She did not want them to touch at all, so Craig was called in to help. Little do they know that needles and anything in his loved ones bodies makes him so queezie that it is not good. They first took out 2 of the 3 IV's in her arms. Next was the IV in her neck. It is in a major vein, and they had to use some sort of pliers to get it out. During this, as you can imagine, Sara was a mess. Craig started getting pale and light headed and so the nurse asked him to leave. She had never asked a parent to leave before and she felt bad to do so, but if she wouldn't have Craig would have been on the floor. After the IV in her neck was out, Sara would not allow them to touch the one in her foot. They would have to get it out soon because it can cause infection, but they told her they would wait.

While they finished taking out her IV's Craig went downstairs to eat breakfast. I felt so bad for him because he was so tired and had to deal with a lot by himself. While he was doing this I was home getting everything organized with the kids for the next week, getting ready, straightening the house, and downloading pictures so I could blog later. Around 11 a.m. Craig called and informed me that they had moved her to her normal room and that they would be in there when we arrived. Room number 2013. She still would not let anyone touch her foot and it was starting to worry Craig.

On the way to the hospital Sara called crying wanting to know where I was and why I wasn't there. It broke my heart. I was only in P.G. and I just wanted to magically snap my fingers and be in her room. Maybe in the next life I will be able to do this. I hurried to the hospital, thinking the whole drive I need to be with her, to hold her and comfort her. But the other kids needed me to. Last night Ben was crying and fussy. He wanted me to hold him and not leave his side, same with Nicole. When we ate dinner at Amy's Ben and Nicole both had to sit on my lap while all three of us ate, or tried to eat. So I knew I couldn't let myself get down and feel bad, because they needed me as well. So I just hurried to the hospital. When we arrived, my parents and Amy, Ryan, and there kids minus Christian were there. So to say the least it was a bit crowded, but Sara appreciated them visiting.

Amy and Ryan at the hospital visiting Sara.

Grandpa, Tyler, Sammie, Chey, and Nicole's fingers. The kids were STARVING after the long drive, so lucky Aunt Cindy put fruit snacks in the basket for them. Good thinking!
The Exhausted Craig trying to stay alert and visit. Sammie and Chey drew Sara a picture and gave it to her. The tech could hear us and came in and invited all the kids to come and get slushies. d They could have a Root beer slush or Lemonade. The kids loved this and so did the adults.

Smile!!! Everyone loved the slushies, even Grandpa. They were so cold that everyone started to get brain freezes. The craziness ceased for a while, but soon it was getting loud again. Ben wouldn't leave my side, which was hard because Sara wanted me. Everyone tried to distract Ben with the fruit snack's Cindy had given us in the basket to toys, but he would just cry unless I was holding him. The phone kept ringing and so Craig was answering the phone calls. It just kept get

louder and louder. So I turned to Craig and said it is time to leave. I told him to call his sister back and he needed to take the kids now. I was going crazy and so I can only imagine how Sara was feeling. She just kept saying, I am sorry guys but you are so loud. Please be quiet. After they left she was heartbroken because she knew she hurt everyone's feelings. I told her that she didn't and she needed to rest.

She fell asleep for a few hours but woke up because she felt like she had to use the bathroom. She had a cath in and so the nurse had to figure out why she was feeling like she had to go. Well she had a kink in the cath and there was over 500 cc of urine trying to come down and couldn't. While the nurse fixed this, I worked on getting the IV out of her foot. Sara was so focused on the discomfort of her bladder she had no idea I was even taking tape off of her foot and then the nurse hurried and pulled out the IV. It worked out great. Craig was relieved to find out we got it out and there was no infection.

At 5 p.m. Sara asked what the family was doing. I told her they were at Grandma's eating dinner. She had a sad expression on her face and I asked what is the matter. I will miss Sammie telling me that we are late and giving me a hug. I just want to be home with everyone instead of here at the hospital.

It was now around 6 p.m. and we were waiting for Craig's sister and her family to arrive. So there we sat in the dark because the light and noise bothered Sara. Luckily while I was home I had downloaded pictures I could blog about and had a friend let me use her laptop so I had something to keep me busy while we waited.

Colette, Brittney, Allison, and Katie came around 6:30 or 7 p.m. As soon as they came into the room, Sara perked right up. She talked and talked with them. After an hour of visiting she decided she wanted to move to her other side so she could see them. The whole visit her back was to us, and she was looking at the wall. So I got a nurse to help her move. This was very challenging. It was hard to watch her do this because of the amount of pain it caused. Well she slowly made it to her back and then she threw up a few times. The only thing she had in her stomach was gatorade and now it was no longer there. About 30 plus minutes passed and she gained her energy back to turn the rest of the way. And once again, she started puking. It was so sad, and she was exhausted. It is crazy how you take something so simple as rolling in bed for granted. She fell asleep for a few hours to be awoken by nurses for vitals and everything else.

That night was a long night. Sara woke up needing to hold my hand every hour for at least a half hour at a time, then I would go lay down to be called upon again. I would have done more for her if I could and the lack of sleep was the least I could do for my sweet baby. At 2 p.m. her bottom leg was going numb and so we had to turn her to the other side. Well once again it took an hour and their was a lot of throwing up. I felt so bad that we had to move her but we had to. She finally got back to sleep around 4 a.m. and we slept until 6 a.m. when the nurses came in to do tests and then the doctors showed up. So I guess we are up for the day, because it was now time to go down and get another MRI.