Day 1: Post-Surgery Blues

Yesterday was a very anxious day, as we were awaiting word on Katie's surgery, which turned out to be 6 1/2 hours long!  It was a success, as declared by Dr. Matthews, which is good, but Katie was extremely agitated when she woke up.  It's been a very difficult 24 hours.  She looks good - much better than I expected, but the swelling hasn't really started yet.  He harvested two adjacent ribs to create the ramus, condyle and fossa for her jaw.  She's completely wired shut from the inside, which gives her a sense of claustrophobia, I think, and that's perhaps what made her so on edge last night (besides the pain).  She's been resting very well since about 6 am.

Today she has to get up and move some, to prevent pneumonia, even though it will be painful.  Dr. Matthews expects the ribs to be especially painful, but Katie kept telling me last night that her ribs didn't hurt, until 6 am.  That's likely due to the constant electrical impulse buttons he's sutured into that area.

They'll change her meds this morning to oxycodone via g-tube so she doesn't itch so much with the morphine, though they already switched to dilaudid for the latest dose.  We've done lots of suctioning of nose, mouth and trach through the night, I've sang to her and read to her, and we've prayed for calm.  I'm anxious to trade places with Pam this morning so I can go back to the Ronald McDonald House and get some sleep.  She went back at about 10:30 last night while I stayed here with Katie.

Thanks for all your prayers.  Watching my 'little' girl go through this kind of ordeal is certainly NOT my favorite part of being a Dad!  We all need to continue to pray that the rib grafts will take so that this jaw joint will stabilize.  He'll get her on some Vitamin D this morning to facilitate the fusion of the bones.