Comments | billiejeanne: Sydney Update

billiejeanne

Sydney Update

Oct 23, 2007 20:30

Sydney's surgery apparently went well today. She was out of surgery by 1pm. Dad left me a message at 5pm telling me that she had woken up a couple times in ICU and was annoyed with the IVs in her hands but hadn't mentioned her head hurting. So I guess that's good ( Read more... )

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billiejeanne October 24 2007, 17:24:37 UTC

That helps a lot. They said she was quite silly going into the surgery, due in part to the meds and in part to the fact that she's a silly, happy little girl. I hope her recovery will continue that way. The biggest worry of the family is trying to keep her inactive enough during the several weeks of recovery. Skull surgery... I just can't get over it. I guess it's good that she can't think too much on what the surgery really meant.

sunring October 24 2007, 02:49:34 UTC

I'm so glad everything went well!

:)

billiejeanne October 24 2007, 17:25:44 UTC

Thank you! I wish I could be there with my family now, but luckily it's a big family and it sounds like lots of folks are around to help out. Both my sisters donated blood for the surgery, since they have the same rare blood type. I kinda felt left out about that, but there's nothing I can do about my blood type!

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billiejeanne October 24 2007, 17:22:58 UTC

Thank you so much for your advice. It's funny, but I don't know Sydney's favorite animal. I know that of both of her sisters, but not her. It's a reminder of how relatively little I have connected with her as opposed to the others, partly because of her age, I guess.

ceciliamarie23 October 24 2007, 17:15:57 UTC

From my limited experience with kids, they seem to be more or less traumatized depending on how the adults around them are reacting. If everyone is acting like things are fine, the kid assumes that things are fine. If people are freaking out, the kid mirrors that. At this age, they're looking to others for appropriate reactions. Aside from the pain, of course, which isn't a learned reponse. So if she's not in too much physical pain, she'll probably be okay. On the other hand, if Maeya had to go through something like this, now or at 2.5, I'd be freaking out. Not in front of her of course!

billiejeanne October 24 2007, 17:21:56 UTC

That's a really good point and one that really reassures me. Joe and Meg have been so level-headed about this it's amazing. It helps that they have already gone through so much stuff with their kids, particularly with Valerie and her juvenile arthritis. All the kids are used to going to hospitals and Joe and Meg are used to dealing with their kids' pain and tough decisions.

ceciliamarie23 October 24 2007, 19:24:13 UTC

I'm glad that helped.
God! Juvenile arthritis!? I never knew such a thing existed! Poor kid. Is she in pain all the time?
I'm going to look it up, this has me mystified.

billiejeanne October 24 2007, 20:13:29 UTC

Yeah, she was diagnosed before she could talk (she was trying to crawl without bending her knees). It usually happens as a result of an extended fever at a young age, which is what happened with her. It is an ongoing struggle with pain management, involving lots of anti-inflammatories and some experimental drugs. This has resulted in frequent trips to the doctors, and joe and meg having to give her pain medication injections at home some times. It has been particularly hard because joe and meg are both athletes, and this affects what Val can do comfortably.

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gogobera October 25 2007, 02:01:59 UTC

I had an eye surgery when I was very young. I hafta agree with the first post - it's hard to remember much about it, and the anesthetics make the entire hospital trip a little fuzzy. In fact, what I remember most was rather positive: all the loving care I got from my family!

Here's wishing her a quick, complete, and healthy recovery.