Pain, Pain, Go Away!

Callista had her second decompression Wednesday. If you know Callista, you know this came with some drama. What was supposed to be a 5-7 hour surgery turned into a 14 hour surgery. Nothing necessarily went wrong in the surgery, it just proved to be a little more difficult than initially expected.

We brought her in at 6:30 for surgery prep. By 8:30 they took her back for anesthesia and to place her IVs. At 9:30 they called out to tell us they were struggling to get lines in and the surgery still hadn't begun. Around 10:30 someone came to tell us they started shortly after our last phone call. The nurse was so good about calling us with updates every hour and a half or so. But after the seven hour mark, it was a little stressful waiting on those phone calls. Each time we were assured everything was going smoothly, the doctor was just taking his time finding the right placement.

Finally around 11:30 the surgeon came out to say it was done and he thought it went well. I am forever thankful it was HER surgeon that worked on her, I cannot imagine a new person taking on such a huge procedure when they did not know her. Dr J. claims this was Callista's going-away present to him. He had to remove bone that had grown back from her surgery when she was two months old. She also had a lot of scar tissue which took some time getting through. He could not pinpoint the spot where the fluid was blocked so that also took more time than necessary. He removed a cyst she had in her brain that had been there since her last decompression as well. Finally he was able to place the stent and close.

She had a CT scan shortly after surgery and it showed the stent was in the right place. They kept her on the breathing tube since she had been under for so long and it was 1:00am. She was able to be taken off the next day. She had a fever all day Thursday so they pumped her full of antibiotics to fight off any possible infection. It finally broke later that night and she was feeling a little better. Her pain was controlled okay until this morning.

Somehow her pain meds were not given around the clock and she was about two hours late on one. She woke up screaming in pain, she held her breath four times, and scared a nursing student to death. Once she got caught back up, she's been happier today. She is awake more and trying to talk and play, but wears out easily. She enjoyed sitting on Papaw's lap today after several days of not being able to be cuddled. She's got pressure ulcers all over the sides of her face from being in the halo for such a long time. She also has a lot of swelling from the surgery and fluids she's been given. We tried to start her food but she couldn't handle it. Hopefully tomorrow is a better day! We hope to be discharged by Monday but she has to eat and have adequate pain management with oral meds.

We won't know if this surgery did what we needed for several months (as long as 4-6 months). The MRI yesterday showed smaller ventricles, maybe that's a good sign!