The day had come and we were READY! Shelby and I arrived at the hospital super early so we didn't miss any of the doctors or nurses. We killed the time by watching some movies, coloring, dancing and laughing. Jake (the driver) and his dad stopped by the room to wish Kadence luck. It was so sweet and thoughtful of them to think of her.
We found out on Monday that Tuesday was the start of Nurse Appreciation Week so we went and got treats for all of the nurses. Kadence wrote thank you notes and we taped them to the candy. We handed them out to many people Tuesday morning.
Rachel met us down at the hospital so she could take Shelby but we again just had us 4 go back to the pre op room. One last picture in front of Mike and Sulley!
She's all ready!
They had a bunch of cords hooked up to check her spinal cord function throughout the surgery. This makes sure they don't make any mistakes that could cause lasting damage simply by not knowing there was a problem until it was too late. The guy explained that he would get a base reading and then for about an hour he wouldn't be able to get a reading because of the cauterizer used which would cause interference.
She went back nervous but happy and I held it together. I was SO nervous. Rachel took Shelby and they had a great day. Another picnic and a lot of fun at Rachels house. Here they are on the merry go round.
The surgery was a longer one so David and I watched Enders Game. About halfway through the nurse called from the operating room to tell us that Kadence did great, they had her opened up and were trying to decide the placement of the hooks. That was such a relief, but it got my anxiety going. To know your baby is but open on a table and there are people debating what the next step should be was not my favorite. We finished Enders Game and started Date night. We were almost done with it and I was starting to get nervous because we hadn't heard from anyone. That's when our buzzer went off telling us the dr was heading to the room. He came in and told us that everything went great! What a relief! We finished the movie and then they brought her back to us. She spent more time in recovery than usual which is understandable, but this momma just wanted to see her and KNOW she was ok. She came back and cried for a minute because she hurt. They gave her a morphine pump which they usually only do if they are 8 or older but figured she could handle being in charge of her pain management. She opened a present from her sister and was pretty happy with it
Here she is looking at herself for the first time
Mommy and her baby
Grandma and Grandpa Joy and Jeffy came down that evening and she was so excited to see them. Kadence did great and refused to say she hurt at all. She kept saying her pain was a 0. Occasionally she said she was a 1 so we would talk her into pushing her morphine button. She sat a little and watched David and I build her Hello Kitty boat. We were so happy because we requested our favorite night nurse and we got her. Her name was Cindy and she was absolutely amazing as a nurse and great as a person.
Shelby got back pretty late and Rachel, Aaron and Kylah came to see how she was doing. Shelby just held her sister for a while and it was so sweet. They hadn't been able to lay together in bed for a while because of how inclined it was.
It was my night to stay with Kadence and I was a little nervous to be honest. I thought it could be a long night and I was already exhausted. I found a lot of comfort in knowing Cindy was her nurse and would take great care of her. To my surprise she went right to sleep and slept really well all night. They rolled her over and she went pee during the night but other than that she was out cold. She did keep farting which she would wake up to and start giggling. She kept talking about it the next morning too which was funny.
We got to keep her pins which they kept warning us were "very sharp" but we didn't care, Kadence wanted to be able to show people. We were so happy that they let us keep them. Jake's dad is actually the one who cleaned them off for us and brought them to her room.
It was a very long day, but everything went great. By the end of the day she had barely had any morphine, was excited about her present and the fact she could keep her screws and still hadn't gotten out of bed yet.
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