Mylee's Update

Mylee went back to Riley Children's Hospital Friday. I had hoped to get the update on here last night, but by the time we got home we were so tired from such a long day. Let me start at the beginning. We had to be at the hospital by 6:00 a.m. so Matt stayed home with the other kids to get them off to school. Mylee, myself, and a good friend of mine (Krista) took off Thursday evening for Indy. We stayed in a hotel a few blocks from the hotel. Since we had to be at the hospital by six, we decided to get up at five, yes, A.M. Let me tell you, 5:00 a.m. came VERY early for all of us.
Once we got Mylee checked in, we were able to chill in the pre-operative room until she was taken back to the O.R. Even though they were not actually doing surgery this time, because of the pain it was going to cause her by stretching and bending the knees, the doctor wanted her to be under aneshtisia. Therefore, before taking her back they gave her the same medicine to relax her as the last time. Within minutes, she became a giggling rag doll. It is so funny to watch her laugh at nothing.


Just before she had her "happy" medicine

Once they took her back, Krista and I were able to go down and get some much needed caffeine. Soon after getting back upstairs Dr. Loder came out to update us. He said that everything looks great and her incisions are healing nicely. He said he did go ahead and take off both casts to stretch both ankles and knees and that the ankles are much more flexible. This time instead of casting her legs in a bent position, he casted them in straight leg. She also has these cast shoes that he wants her to wear because he wants to to walk on these so she can work on getting some strength back in her muscles.
See Mylee in the recovery room was much different this time around. Last time, she did great with little complaining. This time, she cried and cried and cried. The nurses said it was probably because she did not have time to sleep off the anesthesia. Mylee also kept saying that her knee hurt so they gave her some Tylenol. After about thirty minutes, she was REALLY complaining that her legs hurt. Mylee has a pretty high pain tolerance, so I knew that if she was complaining, she had to really be hurting. I found the nurse and asked her if there was anything else she could have for pain. After calling the doctor, Mylee got some morphine and within five minutes, was back to herself. She was smiling, laughing, and charming all the nurses.

Finally able to relax after the morphine kicked in


Once we were able to leave recovery we still had about an hour before we could get into the cast clinic to get Mylee's color so we headed down to the hospital library. While I checked my e-mails and a few updated blogs, Mylee read a book to Dora. She loves to imitate reading and I think it is so cute to watch her "read" to her dolls.


Finally about noon we were able to get into the cast clinic. Since Mylee has been there several time, all the nursed know her by name and she is pretty friendly with all of them. They immediately got the color stick out for her to pick out her color. All day long she had been telling us and everyone else that she wanted purple casts. No problem. As we were walking into the room and the nurses were asking her what color she wanted, she said "I want bwack." Uh, what? So, I asked her again what color she wanted and again, she said "I want bwack!" Nope, not gonna happen. So, when I told her she couldn't have black, I was preparing myself for a breakdown. Instead I got a very simple "okay, I want pink." No problem, I can handle pink, and of course the nurses weren't surprised either that she chose pink AGAIN.



Once I told Mylee she was getting shoes she was so excited. Ever since we were in China, she has loved shoes. She calls them "pretty shoes." Well, the cast shoes are so not pretty, but after visiting the local craft shop, by early next week, those ugly cast shoes will be no more. I will definitely post before and after pictures of them.