-First surgery was cancelled as I mentioned earlier in this post
-The day we got back home after the surgery was cancelled, Vivi became upset over something minor, and she began to cry. She then fell down, which made her scream. At that point, she began hyper-ventilating. She had come close to hyper-ventilating before because she still doesn't know how to soothe herself, but I had always gotten her to calm down. Nothing I did worked this time, and she began to turn white and lose consciousness. As a last ditch effort, I grabbed her sippy cup and made her take a drink, hoping it would help her catch her breath. It worked, but it took another five minutes to get back to normal breathing. She is usually spicy and emotional, but I had no idea why it was so bad this time.
-Later that night, she developed a 102 fever, and I panicked because the surgery had been re-scheduled for just five days away. On Monday morning, we discovered Vivi she had her first double ear infection, which is crazy because Vivi's ears are always perfect-looking. Her ears explained the hyperventilation because her screaming probably caused a LOT of pain on her ears, and this is why she couldn't calm herself. Poor baby:-( By Tuesday morning, she was fever-free we were given the GO for surgery! Whew!
-Pre-Op went fantastic. They let me carry Vivi into the operating room and put her on the operating table. I stayed with her while they 'masked' her, and she went right to sleep. The surgery went very well! Doctor said it went better than it expected! He placed one expander on her head and another one in her neck like I explained in this post
-Recovery was hard and included rushing into the recovery room to find Vivi fighting off four nurses and attempting to yank out her IV, drain, and anything else that was preventing her from getting out of there. Before the surgery, I warned the nurses she panics easily and has high stress levels, and I needed to be there when she woke up. They waited too late to come get me, and I heard her screams from down the hall. (It gets frustrating trying to explain Vivi's heightened 'fight or flight' response or her post-institutionalized issues because the general public assumes she is too little to have any post-traumatic stress although anyone who has basic knowledge of a child's development knows this is not the case.) When Vivi saw me during her escape attempt, she immediately threw out her arms and yelled, "MOMMA!!!" It took a minute to arrange her in my arms without pulling out her tubes, but once I held her, she relaxed and stopped screaming. She whimpered some, but she had completely stopped panicking. I was ticked that all of this could have been prevented if the nurses would have respected my wishes.
-My plan was to use the iPad to catch up on some things while we were in the hospital.... I mock that idea now. That iPad was not mine from the minute I carried her from recovery to her hospital room.
Ipad? sure!
New game that is NOT free?!? absolutely!
Ipad and iphone at the same time? Um...okay... if that makes you happy...
Play "Let It Go" (Frozen) on repeat for HOURS, so you will attempt to sleep? DONE.
You want the iPad on you even if you are asleep and will notice if we take off?
Then the iPad stays on you!
She owned us... and rightly so. She also accomplished her goal of yanking out her IV five hours post-surgery, and she was giving a very impressive stink-eye to anyone in scrubs or a white coat.
-I teach writing and grammar to the most adorable class of 3rd graders one day a week, and my kids and their moms sent us this fruit basket. It was complete with Hello Kitty cutout pineapples and chocolate covered strawberries. I may have been up ALL night, but I was eating some amazing fruit. The grapes were successfully used for bribing Vivi to take her meds the next day.
-Our children's minister at Lifechurch.tv sent Vivi balloons and a fluffy teddy bear. She LOVED them!
-Vivi Cate had a difficult time keeping anything down for a few days. She was begging to eat the strawberries from the fruit basket, and although she had been throwing up and strawberries probably wouldn't help that, I complied. She was thrilled and wanted to do silly poses while eating it!
(It did all eventually come back up an hour later.)
-She H.A.T.E.S taking her pain meds and her antibiotic from the surgery. She starts crying in anger when I even touch one of the bottles. By the time I fill the syringe-thingy, she is seriously ticked off. She can say "I don't want to!", "Go AWAY, Mommy!" and "Don't TOUCH me!" with ease. She will sometimes spit out her meds in rebellion... which is better than becoming so hysterical, she dramatically gags until she throws up everything in her stomach. She's a little too proud of herself afterwards.. Well played, Vivs.
-Once we got the pain managed, she did really well although she is still not sleeping well. The first few days she fought to stay awake. I think she was too afraid to close her eyes, which was hard too watch. She doesn't sleep well when she is stressed. She did the same thing when we came home from China, so I almost expected for her to react to the surgeries this way. She doesn't cry when she has her 'all-nighters'. She just hums or makes a "Mmmmmm" sound with her throat. She also sings to herself. This is would all be fine... but she's in our room still. I slept in the guest room last night just so I could have a full night of uninterrupted sleep. It was glorious!
-On Wednesday, We were scheduled to drive back to OKC for her Thursday suture removal. Camden woke up that morning with a fever and cough, and it turned out he had Influenza A... despite getting the flu shot in November. We had no choice but to still go to OKC for the suture removal, so off we went wearing surgical masks. I thought it was very 'Chinese' of us because so many in China do this during their flu season. On the plus side, his flu has been a VERY lame case, and he is fever-free today!
-Vivi's neck expander has swelled. I had been sending pics and video to her doctor, and he wasn't too alarmed, but by Wednesday, I was in major panic mode because it was getting worse. I was terrified that it had become an infection, and they were going to have to remove it.... which means starting all over in a few months. The two hour car ride with a stitched up toddler with a swollen expander, a flu-ridden boy, and a Caroline (who is a wild card when it comes to car rides) was exhausting, but thankfully my bestie Jill stayed on the phone with me for an hour and kept me awake.
-Suture removal the next morning went great! Her doctor closely inspected at the swelling while Vivi was gassed, and he said that it is still doing okay! I'm praying it stays that way! At my request, they brought me in before she woke up. She did great! I put her shoes on almost immediately because I knew she would know we weren't staying if her shoes were on. She even cheered when I put them on her!
-We are back home for another five days before we return to OKC for an expander fill... hopefully we will be minus the flu and the expander swelling freak-out. Last week was just a really hard week.
-Right now, Vivi Cate is back to her happy, spicy self. She is still super cuddly, extremely loud, and a bit naughty at times. Yesterday she was mad at me, so she locked me out of the house...on purpose. *ahem* She's lucky she is so dadgum cute.
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