Category: Home Life

Dani had a great first night considering the nurse came in the room to check vitals and change her diaper every two hours. Both of us slept in between the interruptions and Dani didn’t really cry, she just whimpered a little and held my hand while the diapers were being changed. Around 8 am different staff members showed up to check on her and they were all very impressed. I think that due to all the stuff she had to have done they expected her to be much worse off, but she is a trooper. The pain medicine obviously made her drowsy, but she still managed to smile and wave at the people going in and out to check on her.

The nurse decided that she was ready to eat so I ordered her some juice and cheerios as a starter meal. As you can tell from the photo she was a happy girl and couldn’t get them in her mouth fast enough. Dani watched a little TV while I read a book until Mike arrived. Our friend Sarah had the girls and was going to keep them for the day in addition to taking them to another friend’s birthday party. My cousin Jen, her husband Chris and their kiddos were coming to town for a wedding and so I invited them to swing by the hospital to say hi. I REALLY wanted to see their new little girl Olivia who had been born in December.

Cute little second cousins meeting for the first time.

Joshua and Caleb – cute as can be!!!

After Jen and Chris left we just hung out in the room and Dani got a little nap. I ran out to get myself some lunch and a breather from the hospital room. After a while Mike headed out to fight the traffic across the metroplex and pick up the girls so they could come up to the hospital. At that point nurse Rebekah said that Dani could go for a walk in one of the red wagons, so we piled up the pillows and off we went. I used this time to do the “Walk For Life” that I had taken pledges for since there would be no way I would be at the official walk on Saturday morning.

Dani was smiling and waving at people and pointing out things all over the hospital. We spoke with families who had surgeries done the day before and wandered all the halls. I ended up walking two miles instead of one. 🙂 They also asked us if they could take some photos of Dani in the red spica cast for publicity, and I said of course. Then they asked if I would be in them too, and again I said yes. Dani had mac-n-cheese for dinner and you could tell she was really excited about it. With as much as she loves to eat, she hadn’t had much at all for two days.

The surgeons came to check on Dani several times and continued to marvel at how well she was doing and so they went ahead and removed her epidural. That was a great relief for me because it showed she was managing her pain better and that it was two less machines that were going to beep all night long. After miserable hours of traffic, Mike returned with the girls for a little visit before heading home.  Once Mike left, Dani started to moan and cry and beat on the cast in frustration. This went on until about 11 pm and all the while the night nurse was saying ridiculous stuff to me about how I should be with Dani. I was VERY frustrated and just about to ask for a different nurse when she finally got the hint that she was pissing me off and left the room. I really, really prefer to be patient with people, but it’s not realistic to expect a newly adopted child to act like people’s biological children.  And I can’t stand people giving me unsolicited parenting advice or telling me what they think I should do with my newly adopted child. Mind your own business! Then Dani and I settled in for another long night due to the noise of being in a hospital.

**PS. I just want to say that Scottish Rite has just about the most amazing staff I have ever come in contact with. We have never experienced anything like what the night nurse said to me. Maybe she was just ignorant of adoption (which is fine), or maybe people just let her talk to them like that. Either way, a little more sensitivity is in order when parents are stressed and worried about their kids.

Early on the morning of May 8, 2014 we woke up and headed for Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children to get Dani checked in for her surgery. We waited in our room until various people came in to touch base with us and confirm she hadn’t had any food or drink. We also saw the surgeons again who went over everything with us one more time. We also cleaned her one more time with the special wipes they gave us and put her in the hospital gown. Then we had a lot of down time to play and keep her occupied until it was time for surgery.

Then they came in and gave her the “goofy juice” to help her relax and it was time to head down to the surgery floor.

Here we are waiting for all the final items to be taken care of like “what color cast do you want?” and “Here is your beeper.” The anesthesiologist came in to talk to us and tell us it was time to go and that Dani was as cute as she had heard. Mike put Dani on the bed and she grabbed her and said, “I want to carry her in!” We laughed and they were off to start the procedure. We went to the cafeteria and had breakfast then went to the room to grab some stuff to take to the waiting area.

These turtles were in the surgery waiting room and were completely wild! I have never seen turtles act like these did. They were swimming around chasing each other and biting on their shells. If their job was to distract parents, it worked. We were told the surgery was scheduled for 3 hours, but could take up to 5. The time stretched on and on and finally our beeper went off and we headed down to see what they had to say. The nurse told us that all was going well and that they weren’t finished yet so we went back up to the waiting area. Mike and I both tried to get a little sleep while we waited and then at the start of hour 5, our beeper went off again. The surgeons came to talk to us and told us that even though they had to do “the full court press” on her pelvis and hip, it went as well as they could have hoped. We were about to go back to the waiting area when the recovery nurse came out and said that she was already awake so we could come back.

This was Dani in the recovery room after waking up. She looked so sad and she cried the saddest cry which broke our hearts. We spoke to the surgeons and they told us that everything went as great as they hoped and that everything looked good.

We also got a look at the x-rays to see what they had done. Once she was okay we headed up to the room and tried to help make her comfortable. She was clearly confused and upset about the IV in her hand and other wires and tubes attached to her. I thought she would go to sleep fairly quickly, but she just continued to look around confused about what was going on. After a bit Mike decided to go and pick up the girls from Laura’s house so he could bring them back to see her. Dani fell asleep and I settled in with a book when all of a sudden leaves and tree branches started to hit the windows. I looked out and then closed all the shades because the sound had woken her up. The next thing I knew the PA system started beeping and they asked everyone to please stay away from the windows because of the storm. A few minutes later the PA system beeped again and said, “CODE BLACK CODE BLACK Everyone out of their rooms.”

A few minutes later multiple Scottish Rite employees were in the room getting all of Dani’s IV’s and other gear together and then they told me that we were being moved into a big storage closet with the other patients. They rolled us in there and brought chairs for the parents. Several of the other parents said that a tornado had touched down in University Park which was somewhat close to the hospital. I immediately checked my phone for the direction the storm was moving because Mike was on the road on the way to get the girls. From what I could tell he was going the opposite direction of the storm and at that point he had already been to Laura’s and was on the way home with the girls. After 45 minutes they cleared us to go back to the room. Thankfully everyone was safe, but what an adventure.

After a while I was able to get some smiles out of Dani, which made me happy because she had been so sad.

Mike returned with the girls and some dinner for me and Dani perked up a lot when she saw her sisters. They played in the room a bit and then Mike took them home and I settled in on the pull out chair for what I knew would be a long night of interruptions to check Dani’s vital signs. It was a long night, but both of us managed to get some sleep.

May 7, 2014 was pre-op day for Dani at Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children. Our friend Lucy came to pick up the big girls for an all day playdate and the rest of us headed for the hospital. Once all the documents were signed, they took Dani’s height, weight and blood pressure. Then Dr. Birch came in to talk to us briefly and go over the plan for the next morning. From there we headed over to x-ray and then to the station to have her blood work done.

After that they told us we could go for lunch and then finish meeting people and signing papers. We also got a text photo from Lucy of the big girls having fun.

Once lunch was finished they assigned us our room and we spent the next several hours meeting everyone from occupational therapy to nursing and we had one more meeting with all the doctors who would be involved in the next days surgery.

The entire staff was wonderful, but it was a really long day. All three of us were ready to go when they told us we could have a pass to go home for the night. We headed straight over to pick up Nadia and Amelie. Then we stopped by the house to make sure everything was packed up for them to go to Laura’s house for the night. Then we headed to Pei Wei to have dinner before dropping the girls off. Once home Mike and I let Dani have a long bath and then we had these special wipes we had to clean the surgery area with and it was time to get her to bed.