Hospital check in and all things that come with it

I’ve tried to start typing this blog for a couple of days now but I was just in a really negative place. The last few days have been rough between being homesick and having to unexpectedly move out of RMH. I don’t want to portray them in a negative light what so ever but the RMH here has different rules on maintaining possession of a room there. Those rules would not allow me to stay the night with Gabby at the hospital and well that just won’t do for us. We did enjoy our few days there between the playing with the house dog and playing on the playground.

She she decided we needed to have a little photo shoot. 

Playground fun  

Petting Gardy the RMH house dog. 

We checked into the hospital yesterday afternoon. The nurses, nurse assistants and child life have tried their best to make us feel at home. Gabby was very upset when we first checked in and the nurse were on top of it and got child life to come in immediately. Our child life person during the day is Michelle, she is wonderful and very patient. She helped us out during them trying to place her IV. This Gabby’s first IV since she was an infant that she has been awake while receiving it. She has always been gotten in during surgery or had a PICC line. It took 3 tries which ended up with the IV specialist using a ultrasound machine to get it placed. Along with that they put in a NG tube. When they put in a NG tube they bring a mobile X-ray around to make sure the tube is in the stomach where it needs to go. Unfortunately, hers was not in the right place and Dr. Alam pulled it and told her that he would give her a chance to drink it. But if you have drank the prep for a colonoscopy before you know that it doesn’t taste good at all. After drinking around 2 oz she vomited and we decided to place the NG tube again this morning. The tube has been placed correctly and they started a constant feed of prep. The will start at 50 cc per hour increasing every 10 minutes by 15 cc until they reach 200 cc/ hour unless she starts vomiting again. When I saw Dr. Alam last night we had a very candid talk about mine and Gabby’s time here so far and how disappointed I have been. He asked that I get myself together and to make sure that I was mentally in the right space to proceed with the surgery. He realizes that things aren’t going as smoothly as they have at the past hospitals and they are working on getting the kinks worked out.               

Dr. Alam told us to be prepared for a long day Thursday. The surgery could last up to 9-12 hours. He said this is the most complicated surgery that he will probably ever perform on her. He will start by scoping her bladder to get and idea of what it looks like because she hasn’t been scoped in 2 years. It will involve taking a piece of her small bowel and adding that to her bladder to increase the size of it. There will some reproductive system exploration and then also a surgery regarding that area... how in depth will depend on what he finds and lastly a possible revision of her colostomy. Just having her under sedation that long is dangerous but I have so much faith that he will be guided todo exactly what she needs to make her future better. Once she comes out of surgery she will be in the ICU hopefully not more that 2-3 days. From there it is possible that she will move to a step down unit and then back to unit 7A where we are right now. He said yesterday that we are looking at 10-14 days in the hospital after the surgery. Let us pray that it is on the lower end of the spectrum. 

Bart, Granny, Mrs. Mary and Avery are currently in route here and I know once I’m able to touch them that will lift mine and Gabby’s spirits immensely. 

Thank you for your continued prayers and support. They are always greatly appreciated. I will try to post several times during the day tomorrow with updates during the surgery.