Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Post-Surgery - Day 1

So today was a pretty good day for Brianna. She was dying to go outside, but her pleading got her nowhere. I was able to take the bandages off. That was much easier than I thought it would be. Nothing was stuck to them, so they lifted right off. Her incision isn't too bad. Starts at the bottom of each ear, and goes up to the top of the ear, and then about 3" at a 45 degree angle toward the back of her head. Her hair is barely shaved at all. He probably shaved 3" of hair, no thicker than 1/2". So, once we wash her hair, I bet you won't even be able to tell.
Brianna didn't nap at all today. Every time she put her head down, she said that it hurt. I gave her the Tylenol with codeine. She went to sleep about 1/2 hour - 45 minutes later. She only slept for about 1 hour, and must have moved her head, because she woke up crying. I say, this has been harder than I thought it would be. She can't seem to get comfortable at all. She says that the back of her head is sore, and so is her neck, so that doesn't leave much room for comfort.
My daughter is amazing. With that sentence, I feel such amazement. I would be a whining wimp in her situation. She is just the strongest, bravest little girl ever. My daughter is amazing.
One thing I found interesting...She says that she can hear herself talk. She said that sometimes during the day she was able to hear the TV. I wonder if she is hearing it. That would just make this experience so extreme. I know the doctor said 70% chance she would retain some residual hearing, but already? Is this real? We will see. I will keep you all updated on her progress.

Activation day is set for May 20th. Just under 3 weeks!

Thank you all for your support. I hope to have a bit of time here soon to thank you all personally, but for now, GROUP HUG! And a great big thank you!

Michelle

4 comments:

Christian and Lily's Mommy said...

Yeah Brianna! Children are just so amazing on how they can cope and bounce from surgery! Counting down the days to activation!

Abbie said...

Awwwh, she is doing really good though. I don't blame her for hurting because your neck is put in ackward positions during the surgery. She was stretched in ways that she has never been stretched before. The best thing she can do is sleep on her back inclined. I seriously parked my rear end in my recliner for a week. I couldn't sleep on the side that I got implanted on for three weeks. It was actually the day right before my activation I was able to.

She seems to do be doing great. I knew she would be bopping all over the place by now.

Katie-Louise's blog said...

Hey,

Just read your blogs about brianna - you like to say all the best of luck for the activation day. I've just had my operation last tues (22nd) and i'm due to be switch on, on the 19th.

so it will be good to hear stoires on how ur daughter is getting on.

You could also check out my blogs too. :-)

katie

Anonymous said...

Hey there, I was thinking about the little one today and hoping she's now bouncing back and getting those much needed naps without pain.

We went through a lot of frozen yoghurt and juice pops during those days post-surgery -- maybe it was the novelty, but somehow a frozen tongue works wonders. But I have to admit, I started the practice without thinking about the fact that I couldn't then dunk her in the bath for easy clean-up for the whole week ... and you know what happens to kids and melty things.