Saturday, December 25, 2010
Merry Christmas to All
The whole family spent Christmas Day over at Grandpa and Grandma's house. We ate a delicious dinner and exchanged gifts. Lauren loved her gifts from everyone, but she also loved Grandma Sandy's gift--a new keyboard. She'd play a tune for everyone and then lead us all in clapping after each one!
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
A Super Ankle for a Super Girl
Dr. Standard and Jeff (a resident who helped take great care of Lauren) met with us for Lauren's post-op appointment. Jeff came in first and told us that Dr. Standard was really excited about Lauren's super-ankle surgery because they found that she had more cartilage there than expected and that meant more stability. When Dr. Standard joined us, he reiterated how successful the surgery was, showed us Lauren's x-rays, and told us we were free to head back to Michigan. We were especially happy to hear the good news about Lauren's surgery, and also happy that we'd be home by Thanksgiving. Bye for now Baltimore!
"Home" at Hackerman-Patz
Lauren, comfortable back "home" at Hackerman-Patz, sporting the altered pants and fixator cover that her Grandma Sue made for her.
To me, this picture is like a glimpse into her teenage years...good thing she was really just calling her grandma's room to chat it up.
She must have really been taking things in at the hospital because she played a very good medical professional afterwards.
Grandpa Dan flew in to join us and Lauren rode along to surprise him at the airport.Friday, November 19, 2010
Sweetest Little Patient
Steve, Grandma Sandy, and I were able to all be with Lauren in the pre-op room Tuesday morning before her surgery. Lauren was given some medication to make her sleepy but she still managed to give hugs and say "awww" to Elmo and her new teddy bear the nurse gave her. Lauren and I rode on the cart together to the operating room and I was allowed to stay until she was just about under from the anesthesia.
We attended a fixator class that morning after Lauren's surgery was under way and learned all about making adjustments to the fixator, cleaning pin sites, etc. In the afternoon, we waited...and waited...for Lauren's surgery to be done. At about 3 p.m., the anesthesiologist came out to tell us the surgery was done and Lauren's recovery was going well so far. We started to follow him back to the recovery room and he stopped and said "oh, by the way, she's asking for Elmo." We grabbed her Elmo and headed back, but we had to laugh that she was asking for Elmo and not us. Who knew that Elmo would be such a great buddy to her through all this?
Lauren must have been the sweetest little patient in the hospital. After surgery, she just took everything in stride and didn't complain at all about being in the hospital crib, the fixator on her leg, or not being able to walk. She slept well at night, even with the nurses coming in every few hours to check on her. I'd hear her pointing out her "Elmo" doll and her nurse book which she calls "Mom-mom" to them. After the nurses were done, I'd go over and tell Lauren that everything was okay and she'd go right back to sleep. The first couple of days she had an epidural which kept her pretty much pain free. On Thursday, Lauren became very uncomfortable and was requiring pain medication through her IV. We didn't find out until the next day that her epidural pump malfunctioned and had stopped delivering the medication to her. Thankfully, by that time, Lauren was on oral pain medications and doing well with those. We were just so sorry to hear, as were her nurses, that our little girl had gone through that painful day unnecessarily.
Lauren's physical therapy in the hospital consisted of some exercises and wagon rides around the pediatric unit with her daddy, which she really enjoyed. She knew as soon as the wagon appeared in her room that she was going and would ask "bye bye?" very excitedly. Sometimes we'd stop in the play room too. Lauren played with Barbies for the first time and loved them. An older girl was in there one day and she'd dress up the dolls and then hand them to us. Lauren would "ooh" and "ahh" over the doll's dresses.
T-G-I-F! Lauren was released from the hospital on Friday evening. With her daddy pulling her in her brand new Radio Flyer wagon, and Grandma Sandy and I following close behind, we all headed back over to the Hackerman-Patz House.
Monday, November 15, 2010
Planning for the Big Day
We made our way to Baltimore and met with Dr. Standard on Monday afternoon to discuss plans for Lauren's surgery the following day. He explained to us what he thought would be best for Lauren at this point and, although a bit more involved than what we were expecting, we were pleased with his plan for her. He said he would fix her ankle by aligning her ankle bones under her leg, and fix her tibia by cutting a small wedge out of it and then using an external fixator to straighten the bone. Because the external fixator would be used, Dr. Standard said we could do a "mini-lengthening" at the same time which meant we would pull the bone apart slightly in order to gain about 1/2 an inch of length. We ended the appointment with Dr. Standard telling us to go get settled in to the Hackerman-Patz house, get some rest, and he'd see us about 8 a.m. the next morning. We were more worried about Dr. Standard getting his rest but he assured us that he has plenty of energy to do what he does. As far as us getting our rest, we found out that was easier said than done when facing your little girl's first surgery. We were so thankful that Lauren atleast was able to go to sleep easily and rested peacefully through the night.Sunday, November 14, 2010
Sunday, October 31, 2010
She Makes a Beautiful Butterfly
Lauren made a much better butterfly this Halloween than she did an elephant last year! If you recall, she was a very cute although very sad looking elephant. This year, we trick-or-treated at the grandparent's houses and a few houses in each neighborhood. We finished up the night with a trip to see Lauren's might-as-well-be grandparents, Rick and Marsha. It was a fun night spent with our beautiful butterfly.
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