My Really, Really Old Lady

This morning Hanna said "I am a really, really old lady...not like you, your just a mom".

Coming from her I am taking that as a compliment. We are home after some real hospital adventure.

Hanna went to have her foot rebuilt. She has a bone graph to build her an arch which she did not have, a graph to aline her toes correctly, screws and pins to put the heel together, and a shortened hamstring to bring her foot around so that it faces forward. This according to our states health care system is a same day surgery for anyone twelve years old or older. Both our pediatrician and surgeon requested that she be hospitalized for at least 48 hours. Those requests were denied. We went to the surgery center prepared. She had the procedure which went fine. We then had a SCREAMING, crying, out of control kid for the next 7 hours! There were 2 nurses and I trying to take care of her. The surgeon and another physician stayed, too. They were giving her as much medication as they could without running an IV, because she could not be sent home on an IV. Finely the surgeon called some medical director who came to be everyone`s Superhero. The three physicians conferred for about 5 minutes and then this guy asks me if it would be okay to start a morphine drip on her? Of course I said go for it and within fifteen minutes we were making some progress. My Superhero guy then got on the phone with the state and 10 minutes later they were requesting an ambulance to transport us to the hospital. After all that drama those nurses and I were exhausted and so happy to have quiet that we just stood there looking at the poor kid who was still shaking and whimpering, but oh so gorgeous in the state of calm.

We had an ambulance ride across town and then spent an hour in the ER while they got things in order to admit her.

When we got to the hospital we got the same room and 3 nurses that we had had last year when Hanna had her other surgery. The social worker that was there had also been there before. I was one happy mom by then because I didn`t have to explain anything to them. They already trusted that I knew what I was doing when it comes to caring for this kid. They asked questions and followed through well.

So we had a sleepless night with drama going on in the room next door, a kid trying to escape from the unit,(which sets alarms off and sends people scrambling very quickly) and people in and out of our room every 10 minutes. We got Hanna off the IV about 5:30 pm yesterday and we came home about 9:30 last night. I turned the Hanna watch over to Dad, crashed until 2:00 am when I got up to relieve him.

This is one adventure that was pretty costly and certainly was avoidable, if the special needs some people have would be factored in when decisions are made. Hanna will need this same surgery done on her other foot some day, I wonder if I will be going through this adventure with my really, really old lady again? I will have my bag packed, be ready for another ambulance ride, and a trip through the ER.