Marley in the Hospital: Day One

Marley's surgery to repair her tethered cord was this morning. We arrived at the hospital at 6:45am and after 2, long hours were finally sent upstairs to admit her for surgery. It was hard to say goodbye to her, but we felt that she was in very capable hands.

The surgery was relatively quick. Our neurosurgeon, Dr. Gupta called us at 11:15 to let us know that the surgery was complete and that Marley had done very well. We met her in the PICU a half hour later and she was semi-awake, crying.

I write this entry at 8pm and in that time Marley has very slowly woken up from her anesthesia. An IV is placed in her neck because they couldn't locate a vein to use in her arms, hands or feet. IVs in the neck suck because every time she bends her neck the IV tubing gets occluded, which causes the pump to beep loudly, which wakes her up with a start. The nurses have assured us that when she is able to tolerate fluids orally then they can take off the IV tubing but leave the IV in so she can continue to receive IV morphine.

She's receiving the morphine about every two hours. She gets quite high within a few minutes and it's quite the site to see her eyes glaze over, her muscles relax and her breathing slow down. I think my little baby likes being high.

But it's horrible to see her in pain. Any little movement makes her grimace and cry. I can't imagine how sore she feels and it makes me feel so bad for having put her through this ordeal. I wish I could pick her up but I am not allowed to yet; she needs to remain flat and immobile for the time being.

Tomorrow she will be transferred to a regular room. The plan is to keep her in the hospital at least until Saturday. She needs to be able to tolerate oral codeine before she can leave.

I'll try to update this blog daily while she's here. Thanks for all the kind emails, calls, prayers and positive thoughts today. It really makes the experience more bearable knowing that so many people are thinking or us and wishing Marley the best.