My Child’s Surgery – A Mother’s Point of (new) View
insight ˈɪnsʌɪt/
noun
- the capacity to gain an accurate and deep understanding of someone or something.
The loud noise I could hear above all else was the sound of my breathing.
Almost as though I was under water and it was echoing all around me.
Lauren was calm, what was I worried about then?
We arrived at the hospital at our allotted time of 10:30am. Went through the process of filling out forms, showing identification and tagging Lauren with her hospital bracelets. Nothing makes it more official than hospital bracelets.
We joined the other families in the pre-op waiting rooms and as I looked around us I wondered what the other kids were having done. Most kids looked “typical” …..
typical ˈtɪpɪk(ə)l/
adjective
-
having the distinctive qualities of a particular type of person or thing.
But then again you could say the same about Lauren.
“She looks normal” isn’t a compliment?
Time passed….. at times fast….. at times slow.
Again…. the loud noise I could hear above all else was the sound of my breathing. Almost as though I was under water and it was echoing all around me.
Some more time passed, I couldn’t say how long, when a nurse entered the pre-op waiting room and announced the hospital had been placed in crisis mode.
The hairs begin to stand at the back of your neck and you start to think back on the past 14 seasons of Greys Anatomy, desperately trying to remember what crisis mode was.
The nurse went on to explain there was an accident at a primary school where a group of children were hurt by a car that had driven in to their classroom.
Our attention immediately turned to the windows where we saw ambulance after ambulance pull in, escorted by many police riot cars. Media news reporters set up station outside the hospital and a growing number of the school community gathered, huddled, praying.
Chilling scenes. Enough to make you sit back and think “why am I so worried? My child sits calmly (and completely safe) beside me”
Soon after, we got news that two of the seven children that were brought in had died.
Insight.
It’s a blow to your gut.
More time passed and at 2pm it was time.
There is nothing that can describe the feeling of laying your child down in the arms of the anesthetic team. Having to watch them fall asleep knowing you have given full control to the surgeon. Kissing them and then having to turn around and leave the room. Leaving the room. There’s always tears (your own) and there’s always a volunteer at the other side of that door waiting with a box of tissues and a soothing voice
It was five hours before the recovery doors opened with Lauren’s surgeon walking out to inform me that the surgery went well.
He was very pleased with how straight he was able to get her feet and after taking too much bone from her hip for the graft I was informed they’d frozen it for future surgeries.
Epidural stayed in and came out on post-op day 5. We went home day 7.
No weight bearing for 6 weeks and in casts for 9 weeks. The recovery period will begin and rehab will soon consume our lives.
Like pre-op therapy already hadn’t? And all the therapy she’d endured since she was a baby?
She’s got this I’m sure.
Insight.
It’s a gush of breath and the realization of just how lucky we are. That I was going to walk beside Lauren being ported to the ward where I got to stay with her for the week.
Insight.
It’s a feeling of sadness knowing I was laying by my child whilst two mums went home that night without theirs.
Insight.
We are lucky. We are blessed…. and Lauren? Well Lauren did what she always does…. went through it all with a smile on her face.
SURGERY
Lauren was diagnosed with cerebral palsy when she was around 13/14 months old.
Lauren had Lateral Column Lengthening & Talonavicular Fushions surgery on both her feet. Basically it’s a foot stabilisation surgery plus a bone graft taken from her hip to wedge in her feet due to the deformity.
The surgery took place on 7th November 2017, weeks before Lauren turned 11.
Follow Lauren’s Journey
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