The Sun is Shining In Through Her PICU Window

Hi again. Well, it's an absolutely beautiful day out. Too bad we're not able to go to the zoo today! I must say, that it is nice to be sitting in a chair next to Fiona, and next to a big window with the sun blazing in. I am insisting that the weather is a reflection of the success of her surgery. It is all blue skies as far as I can see.

Fiona is well medicated at this point. A combination of Fentanyl and Valium. The Fentanyl is on a pump, and that Valium is every 4 hours as needed. She is waking up periodically and trying to move. She is currently positioned on her left side, and I think it is bugging the heck out of her. If she is like me, I can't stand any position other than my stomach. She keeps waking up and putting the death grip on her railing and trying to move herself. That will be a pretty painful idea come tomorrow when they start to decrease the heavy duty pain medication. They had to reposition her, and she clearly felt it and started to cry for the first time since the whole process started. She reached out to Doug to pick her up, and that was heart-breaking. She also asked "am I all done yet?" She finally got herself tucked under a little and is clutching her animals and sleeping peacefully again.

The PICU staff are great and very accommodating. I will be able to stay and sleep here in the room tonight if I want, although they did say that if I wanted to go back to the hotel for a good sleep that tonight was the night. She will have a lot of staff looking out for her. Good to know, but not going anywhere. We have the hotel for 1 more night, so I'm going to convince Doug to go sleep there. He is currently snoozing in the recliner next to Fiona's bed. We have TV, we can use our lap tops, I have a book and Fiona is in good hands, so we are all resting now.

I was very curious about the incision, which they showed me. It's very short. 2 inches max. Every time Dr. Park's name is mentioned, I get a lot of comments like "I never have any problems with his incisions" or "he's the man". I like to hear all of that.

He is a man of few words. When he came to see us after the surgery, I asked if he had to cut a lot of nerves. (In my linear brain, I wanted to have the details e.g. "on bundle number 10, I cut 3 or 4 rootlets, whereas on #2, I only cut 1 of 4", but no such luck). He replied in his quiet Korean accent "I cut enough, and I left enough". All righty then! And he was out the door. Normally, this small amount of info would aggravate me, but I have to say, it was his confident demeanor that just left us feeling like no further explanation was necessary.

Back to Fiona. More later. Chris