DeLainey's Orthopedic Adventures

(Lainey loopy pre-surgery..)

I've been meaning to write about our adventures with the girls orthopedic interventions.

Here goes!

As mentioned before Lainey was scheduled for surgery on October 13th to have her gastroc muscle released.

She was a little naive about surgery and what would happen. But in her usual happy go lucky way she made it through.

She drank some meds that made her loopy and she was wheeled to the OR. They did her IV after she was out. Thank Goodness!!

And then we waited... and waited. The surgery was estimated to take about 45 minutes to an hour which to my impatient self meant "forty five minutes, Mom!"

So I got antsy when it was really an hour. Right as I asked Brandon to ask for an update, we saw Lainey's orthopedist, Dr. K.

She said it went really well and that in few minutes we'd be escorted to recovery.

Lainey was still very sleepy. Her big blue eyes looked like Dopey. They crossed and went different directions and did all kind of silly things! The first thing she asked for was something to drink. (That apple didn't fall far from the ol' tree!)

She was in a good bit of pain, so it took a little while to get that under control and just like that, we wheeled her out of the hospital in a wheelchair and after a little drama got her into the van. She was very scared to put pressure on her legs at all and that caused a few alligator tears to roll out. The casting was also stretching out her hamstring muscles which wasn't exactly pleasant.

She asked for an adult Chic-Fil-A combo and we obliged. Then we parked her on the couch and she requested to watch Extreme Home Makeover.

She dozed in and out of sleep that night and only stayed on the pain medicine (tylenol with codeine!!!) for a few days. Sleeping was the only thing that was super challenging because she had to wear braces on her knees that kept her legs completely extended.

After a few days she was able to hobble around. After 4 weeks she had her casts taken off. Her poor skin looked rough (eczema and some skin breakdown too) and the incision had no closed completely. This worked in her favor and instead of getting another set of casts, she got two soft cast boots that can be removed for bathing. She was much happier especially when she found out she didn't have to wear the knee extender while she slept.

~Stephanie

PS: Did you notice the non-skid part of her hospital socks are on the tops of her feet? Oh yeah.. did I mention she was really, really loopy? She said they had to be on top so they could look at her. ;)