The nurses in the recovery room all commented that Caleb's fixator is relatively small in comparison to other children's that they have seen. I believe this is due to the fact that Caleb is lengthening at the ankle, instead of under the knee, like originally planned. Of course it looks huge to me and it took a little time to get used to, but since everything is still bandaged up it isn't quite as scary anymore. Tomorrow is our first appointment with the physical therapist and we will be taking the bandages off so I will see the bars and wires that are going through his foot and leg (not looking forward to it) and learn how to clean the pin sites and turn the struts. Turning starts this Wednesday.
Our time in the hospital was pretty uneventful. The epidural was in place while the body recovered from the shock of surgery and while the swelling came down. Caleb ran a slight fever the night of the surgery and had a few moments of break-through pain, I believe this was due to swelling, but his pain level was never very high and the nurses addressed it quickly with morphine and/or roxicet. Caleb's biggest complaint was that his leg felt very heavy. Obviously, the fixator is going to take some getting used to, but in addition to that, the epidural does give the legs a heavy sensation. He had 2 moments in the hospital that were a little rough for him, but we were easily able to calm him down.
Physical therapy in the hospital consisted of getting him from the bed to a wheelchair. The day after surgery it was very hard for him and he didn't like moving his leg. But the second day after surgery was a bit easier for him and I can see that every day will get better and better, the nurses reassured me of this as well. Caleb did not like looking at the fixator while in the hospital and it had to constantly be covered by a towel or sheet. Of course, this will also take some getting used to.
On Friday the epidural was pulled and I was terrified that this would be a hard day for him, but it wasn't! He was given oral pain meds before they pulled it and he was able to go 4 hours between doses. If he hadn't been able to control the pain with the roxicet, they would have given him morphine, although this was not neccessary for Caleb. That night he went from 9:30pm to 5am without pain meds. Isn't that incredible? Since he was able to manage pain with oral medication, he was discharged the next day, the 3rd day after his surgery.
The hospital took care of everything while we were there. Emily, Dr. Paleys patient case manager, ordered Caleb's walker, wheelchair, commode, fixator sponges, bandages, pain meds, valium (for spasms), and saline solution for cleaning. We had everything we needed prior to going home. As we waited for discharge, we put Caleb in his wheelchair and he went to the hallway to see how fast it could go: ) I love that little boy!! As the doctor's keep pointing out, the fixator is not there to scare us, but there to help us, so it is now being dubbed the 'fix-a-nator'.
As we put Caleb in the car to go home, which we have not gotten the hang of yet, I asked him if the surgery was as scary as he thought it was going to be and he said, "No, it wasn't". He asked if he was ever going to see all the nurses from the hospital that were taking such good care of him, and I explained that probably not as they were now going to be taking care of all the other boy's and girl's who just had surgery. St. Mary's hospital is absolutely wonderful with the kids and we could not have been in better hands.
As we are now 4 days post-operation I feel as though we have so much behind us already. We will have our challenges with physical therapy, I am sure, but Caleb has the right attitude and I believe in no time I will be posting pictures of him doing incredible things!
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