Micah's Surgeries Day 8

Day 8-
Micah is on the move!

Looking at downtown Memphis

 We had a restless night because Micah needed help getting up to go to her potty chair every 2 hours and she decided she didn't like the way the nurse helped her get up so she wanted MOM to do it! Guess there's something about Mommy's touch, although she has already told me that I would never make a good nurse, haha! I have to say I'd agree with her! But we are both hanging in there. :) The great news is that Micah is up and down, with much assistance, but nevertheless she is UP! She even walked to the end of the hall (about 25 feet) with the help of her physical therapist, Tea. 
Tea has been so patient with Micah because she does NOT like to get up or move because of the pain and also the nausea and dizziness that comes with it! She had to sit in her special chair for an hour, which she hated but had to do it 2 more times Friday and hopefully it will get better each time. She also walked again but this time she walked half of the floor and back. Its a struggle and Tea does most of the work, but Micah is moving and that's a huge step. If someone had told me she'd be on her feet just 3 days after her second back surgery I would have doubted it!
We had several visitors today including pastor Trevor and Ernie and Barney. Our friends/neighbors the Adams came and brought lots of goodies, Micah was thrilled to see them and has been asking for them so that was a special treat! The McAuliffe's from our church visited and brought Micah the coolest "surgeon" Build-A-Bear complete with an X-ray chart and sparkly pink boots! The coolest part was that each of them wrote a Bible verse relevant to Micah's situation that they felt encouraging and put.them.inside.the.bear. I just love that! So its a Scripture Build-A-Bear! Totally cool! Gary came after work and Wendy & Rachel brought a yummy Mexican spread (with a special best cousin bonus, THANKS Wendy!) followed by Corrie and Jenna with cupcakes and a balloon! The cupcakes are staring at me right now as I type this. Calling to me..."eat me....." I can only resist for so long. I'm eating like a pregnant person in this hospital!!! To all my DAC folks reading this, you guys are in for it when I come back to teaching, we have some work to do! Just kidding! (not really).
We also had 2 special visitors Friday: sweet Madison from church had an appendectomy here and walked down from her room on the 10th floor for a quick visit with her Mom (get well soon, Madison!) and the "pet therapy" folks came in with Salley the dog. SUCH a sweet dog and Micah enjoyed it!

Pet therapy with Salley

 
 

Micah's Surgeries Day 7

Day 7-
Thursday brought with it some baby steps in the right direction for Micah! Our physical therapist came back for more "torture" as Micah puts it but this time she not only made Micah sit up, she made her STAND UP. Yes, stand up just 2 days after her 2nd major back surgery! I can't believe it. With a LOT of support and very small slow baby steps, Tea helped Micah shuffle to her chair specifically designed for recovery from this type of surgery and made her sit in it for 30 minutes. Micah was NOT happy and was very uncomfortable but she did it! 
Tea came back later Thursday afternoon after Micah's catheter foley was removed and made her shuffle to her portable potty chair and sit. Then she had to sit in her special chair for a full hour! She hated every minute of it, but she is doing much better than expected! She is still using her pain pump with the continuous drip but is pressing the button less and less and by the end of the day, she was no longer having to push it every 10 minutes for that boost. Progress..
We had a few visitors: my Dad came up and my good friend Lawanda came and brought her girls to visit who brought some super fun stuff for Micah, including the waterless Tressemme shampoo several people have mentioned to me and we attempted to use it to clean Micah's hair (future reference: the hospital no-rinse shower cap thingies suck and you'd be better off pouring olive oil over your child's head to get the same results but it smells nice at least) and it helped a little but we finally just put one of her cute new bandanas from Cammy and Jasmine over her hair. Out of sight out of mind I hope until we can wash her hair properly without risking getting her incision sites wet or dirty.
My brother and Anna came by with Lucy Kate for a visit also and brought an adorable goodie basket and Angie Davis and Dalton brought lunch from McAlisters--yum! 
Micah is no longer hallucinating, though sometimes she wakes up from a dream still a little confused. It is SO much better than the other day, however and for this I am continually thankful!
My parents stayed with Micah while I snuck off for Micah's open house at the middle school and to file her homebound paperwork for the first 6-8 weeks of school she'll be missing (boo.) and then to the elementary school for Haven's open house. I can't believe she's starting kindergarten! I ran by the house for a minute to grab more clothes and sift through the mail. Micah got some sweet happies and cards in the mail and I was excited to bring them back to the hospital for her! Her friends and counselor from camp (whose sister had a similar surgery 2 weeks ago) wrote her. She smiled!
After my parents left (I was gone for a total of less than 3 hours but it felt like forever away from my sweet girl!) I was able to get in the bed with Micah (she has asked so many times but there were too many tubes!!) and we watched a little Olympics until she fell asleep. I remember getting into her hospital bed so many times at both LeBonheur and St.Jude when she was little and in treatment--and back then she was in a hospital bed CRIB so it was quite interesting-looking I'm sure! She has always loved to snuggle with her mama and I am so not a snuggler! But it made her happy then and it made her happy last night. So thankful the tubes and stuff going into her and wires monitoring her are becoming fewer and fewer every day. 

 

Micah's Surgeries Day 6

Day 6-
This day has NOT ended on a good note but up until this evening I had nothing but good to report! After a nice quiet morning of Micah resting and watching a movie, they moved us from the IMCU to the 9th floor! In fact, we are in the exact same room, just 3 floors up, so after I hung up Micah's happies she received from folks, it looked just like "home" haha. We got settled in and she rested some more. 

Toughest kid I know... 

Physical Therapy came in and not only got Micah to sit up, but after MUCH protesting from Micah, she actually got her to dangle her feet off the side of the bed and sit up for what seemed like forever! Micah did not like this at all and complained the entire time of pain and nausea and dizziness. I can't imagine how it must have felt to sit up for the first time since Friday early morning. I'm sure if she had actually eaten anything since last Thursday night, she maybe would have even thrown up. Poor kid! But she did as she was told and they said the first time sitting up is ALWAYS the hardest. So the worst is hopefully over as far as that goes! More of sitting up tomorrow!

Later this afternoon, Tina brought Micah's buddies Tanner and JT who came bearing not only great gifts, but my favorite: PF Chang's. Mmm... We had a good visit! Our super awesome electric guitarist at GCC, Paul also stopped by while he was here for a meeting and he is always good company as well. I was actually glad we had a low visitor count today. It was a rough day physically for Micah and it was nice to have a few quiet times today. Not that we don't love visitors! We do! Thanks to everyone who has texted, facebooked, called and visited, its been wonderful to feel so loved!
Micah got a PCA pain pump today where she gets to monitor her own pain. You can see the black button thing in the picture above. It has a constant drip of morphine and then every 10 minutes she is able to get another little "hit" if she needs it. It can't give her too much but it lets the nurses know how she is doing pain-wise, based on the number of times and the frequency in which she presses her button. I think she's been pressing it a LOT. 
This evening after Gary came with dinner (yum!) we started having IV trouble. They'd already pulled 1 of the really big IVs they gave her in surgery yesterday and then after the right arm (AGAIN!) infiltrated causing her elbow to get gigantic, we were down to one IV. And then, it too was gone. I made the call to step in as a parent at that point and put my foot down: no more TPN and lipids. The nutrients she was getting were good but the way almost every one of the TPN IV's was blowing after a while led me to believe it was NOT a good idea to give her any more. I've been doing my best ever since to keep giving her the clear liquid protein supplement so that she will at least have something. After both arms were unavailable, we started pushing for a PICC line but finally after the PICC nurse couldn't get an IV to stay strong (2 of the 3 she did was using an ultrasound and Micah's veins just kept blowing), the ER doctor came up and tried with an ultrasound and it almost immediately blew, the other doctor on call grabbed anesthesia coming out of the OR and asked them to come try. They were checking her feet for veins but he ended up finding a spot in her left arm and getting a good IV. It is now taped up, braced down and in an immobilizer as well just to keep it safe! They plugged her PCA back up and she is back in business with her button! WHEW!!!!! The fear was that the Valium and Zofran and Morphine in her system were going to eventually wear off leaving her in pain crisis in the middle of the night. Hopefully we are in the clear. He said this IV should last for several days...here's hoping!
We are continuing to log roll Micah so that her body doesn't lay in one spot too long, which she hates but she goes with it. 
Settling down for the night myself, tomorrow is a new day and will be better! "For this is the day that the Lord has made, I will rejoice and be glad in it!" Psalm 118.24