surgery recap

We got to the hospital mid morning on Wednesday and Sadie was turning on the charm.

Despite the fact that her little belly was completely empty and she was poked at every turn, she was super chill. I kind of felt a little sorry for her because I know that she had no idea what was coming!

The surgery took about two hours and then we waited an additional hour for her to wake up from the anesthesia. It's always difficult to head back to recovery, and it broke my heart to see her there. She was swollen from all the fluids and totally out of it. She was also very agitated and obviously in pain. With her first cry, I burst into tears. It was such a different sounding cry. I don't really even know how to describe it, but I was just so overwhelmed hearing a noticeable difference. I didn't expect it.

Our nurse informed us that there were nine admissions into the ICU and that it would take us a while to get a bed there, so we ended up hanging out in the recovery area for over three hours. I wish I could say I was relieved when they finally took us up to the critical care unit, but I was dreading it. Sadie was drugged and in pain and overwhelmed, but as we headed onto a floor of really sick kids I was overcome by God's goodness to us. Few things are harder for me than seeing sick kids.

It was a long night in the ICU and Sadie would cry the most pitiful cry every time we tried to put her down. J and I tagged back and forth with sleeping and rocking her. We were so excited when they told us we could go to a regular room mid morning on Thursday. The biggest concern at this point was that Sadie just would not drink. anything. It was a battle to get her to take any sort of oral medication. We tried every trick and tip in the book but the girl just did not want to drink.

It took most of the day Thursday but by Friday morning, Sadie seemed to be coming back to herself. She was playing and giggling.

The cup was a great toy, but she still wasn't interested in drinking anything from it!

We enjoyed a few wagon rides around the hospital and had big fun exploring the playroom and a few new toys!


Friday around lunchtime Sadie took a few reluctant drops of milk that I dribbled into her mouth. I started cheering and clapping and crying as I watched her open for the milk and swallow. I'm sure she thought I was completely crazy, but I danced my way through the two ounces that she took! She continued to take a few ounces of milk here and there, so Saturday Sadie got to have her first taste of food. Everything has to be completely smooth and pureed, but she was positively squealing with each bite.




By Sunday, Sadie was back to her old self...eating, playing, exploring. It was getting harder and harder to keep her occupied in that room because she felt so good!

When they told us we could go home Monday morning we were so excited! I got Sadie all ready to go and packed up all our stuff and then decided I needed one more shot of Sadie in her bed. We called her our little monkey because she looked like a monkey in a cage.

Can you tell she wasn't all that amused?

Yeah, she was definitely ready to head home.

And man was she happy to see some of her favorite toys and to actually crawl around for a bit.

So far, it's been a relatively smooth transition back to a new normal. We have our follow up with the surgeon Monday and we're hopeful that he will feel like all is healing nicely. If you could please continue to pray that the feedings will go well, we would appreciate it. It's more and more difficult to keep Sadie interested in pureed foods when she sees the big kids eating and feeding themselves!