Recovery

It’s been awhile since I updated everyone.  Though recovery is slow, Eliza seems to get a little better every day.  Since coming home, she has enjoyed visits from friends and family, movies, cooking shows, card games, and a lot of sleeping.  This week Eliza has been able to start catching up on school work.  Yesterday she even had a short piano lesson over facetime in our living room.  Hopefully next week she can start back to school.  She’ll try some partial days first and see how that goes.  In the meantime, she’s had a couple of outings, the first to a concert (pictured above) and last night to church for dinner.  Fresh air and a change of scenery seem to do Eliza a world of good.  The challenge she faces in getting back to a regular routine is that her leg still swells and becomes painful if it isn’t elevated.  Also, she wears out pretty quickly.  She is getting stronger and stronger and no longer needs a lot of the medications which were causing her to sleep through much of the day.    The prayers, cards, visits, dinners, love and concern mean so much to all of us and it helps more than I’m able to express in writing.  Thank you all so much.

Home Again, Home Again

After a couple of cold days of driving through northern Wisconsin and the UP, we are home!
 

Claire and Grandma Sue decorated to welcome Eliza home.  It was so good to see them and it feels good to have Eliza settled in.  Now for the next several days she’ll be resting on the couch or in bed so her foot can stay elevated to help with the swelling.  In general, Eliza is doing pretty well.

Over the past week, Claire sent around cards to Eliza’s friends at school, church and choir and they sent her get well messages.  Now she has a whole wall of fun messages to read over the next few days.  Thanks to everyone for all the love and support!

Leaving the Hospital

Onto the next phase of recovery!  This afternoon Eliza was discharged from the hospital.  The trip back to the hotel (and the drugs :)) wore her out.  She’s still dealing with swelling and pain, sometimes severe, but we hope for the best this evening and if everything goes alright, we will start to head back to Traverse City in the morning. 

A Good Day

What a huge difference this afternoon!  Pain is under good control now and that, combined with a couple of days of recovery and regaining strength, have made all the difference.  It was a busy day.

Dr. Novacheck, the orthopedic surgeon, visited a couple of times and he is pleased with Eliza’s progress.  We are so grateful to him and the other staff at Gillette for all their care and compassion this week.  Hopefully she will be discharged in the morning.

PT worked with Eliza to get in and out of her wheelchair safely and to be able to go up and down a few stairs since she will need that skill to get into and out of our house.  She picked everything up quickly and should be in good shape for getting around while she is still non weight bearing for the next few weeks.

Each evening volunteers host activities and tonight was the first night Eliza felt up to participating.  Some of the players from the University of Minnesota Lacrosse Team were working with the patients and their families to make art with fall leaves.  After such a full day, Eliza is worn out and sleeping soundly.  She is more of her friendly, chatty self than she has been all week.  What a blessing!

Turning a Corner, Slowly

This morning began with having a hard cast put on Eliza’s leg.  This was a very painful process because her leg was moved around quite a bit, the incisions had to be cleaned, and then her foot held tight at a 90o angle to her leg while the cast was set.  She now has a lovely purple cast and the stability should help overall with her recovery.  The plan was to take away the iv pain medication today, start PT, and take x-rays but after the casting process there was still a lot of pain and she was worn out, so now all of that is added to tomorrow's agenda.


After a long nap and recovery time, the nurses got Eliza into a wheelchair and we took a walk around the floor.  Eliza said that it felt really good to get out of her bed for awhile and have a change of scenery.  In the second picture you can see the Minnesota State Capital.


Frequently there are therapy dogs on the floor visiting the patient rooms.  Tonight two different dogs and their owners came in to see Eliza.  That was definitely another highlight of the day.  Over all she is doing much better and we see that she is stronger each day.  It was a big surgery on Monday and there is a lot of healing that has to happen.  That’s what we have to remind ourselves when there are set backs. This afternoon when her leg was especially sore and I was lamenting how sorry I was for the pain, Eliza said, “Mom, they cut my bone and put it back together with screws and a plate.  It’s going to be sore!"  She understands better than any of us and those are the facts.

Some Inspiration this Morning

Here are the cards Claire sent Eliza for yesterday and today.  The yellow card may be hard to read, it says “Don’t confuse your path with your destination.  Just because its stormy now doesn’t mean that you aren’t headed for SUNSHINE…”
These are a fun way to start the day off while Eliza’s in the hospital and she now looks forward to one with breakfast.  For each day, Claire wrote a theme, which includes:
So got this Sunday, You made it Monday, No tears Tuesday, We all love you Wednesday, and Get through it Thursday.
It’s rainy and cold here in St Paul today.  Where ever you are today and whatever you are facing, remember it’s ‘get through it Thursday’ and to 'Keep your face always toward the sunshine and the shadows will fall behind you’.  :)
Thanks Claire, love you.

The Good and the Not as Good

We’ll start with the not as good, so to end on a positive note.  Pain management is proving to be a challenge, though she had some time this afternoon with lower pain.  We hope this new combination of medication will get her through these rough few days so she’ll be ready for the hard work of moving with crutches and into a wheel chair.  One goal was for her to get out of bed and into a chair for the first time since surgery today and that didn’t happen.  Hopefully tomorrow.  She’s also had a low fever all day which doesn’t feel very good.  All of this can be normal for orthopedic surgery to the extent that she had, we are told.  The doctors still believe that she is on the right path and they are still planning on her being discharged later this week.  The day really wasn’t all bad though.  On the positive side, she is eating again without any trouble.  She enjoyed a couple of movies, a visit from a therapy dog, and a 'partial’ mani-pedi, minus the sore foot and the finger with the pulse oximeter. We are all enjoying the beautiful flowers that came this evening from Grandma Sue, Aunt Aimee, Uncle Doug, Grandma Betty, Papa Ernie, and Claire.  She loves the snap chats, texts and emails from her friends.  That really brightens her mood.  Tomorrow is a new day.