slide-1

HELP the cause AND MAKE A DONATION TODAY

Emma’s Surgery (April 2012)


Emma After Super Ankle Surgery

Emma’s surgery was scheduled for April 24, 2012. Three days after her First birthday. She had her pre-op appointment the day before and Dr. Standard again went  in-depth over the surgery specifics. 

Both my husband and I were extremely nervous. We knew that it was the right decision for our daughter, and  knew what a difficult road we and especially Emma had ahead of us.

We went to the hospital the morning of surgery with our family for their support. Emma didn’t know exactly what was going on but you could tell she knew it was something big. The staff checked us in and then we went back to the pre-op area. We didn’t have to be there too much before surgery because fortunately nothing medically needed to be done prior to her going to sleep. They didn’t even place an IV before putting her to sleep under anesthesia. That was a great relief.

They allowed one of us to go back with her into the operating room. My husband and I decided I should go back with Emma, so I laid on the stretcher with her in my arms as they rolled us back into the operating room. I placed her on the operating table and at that time the anesthesiologist began giving her medications to put her to sleep.

They escorted me out to the waiting room and before I got out of the operating room, I was crying. This was one of the hardest things I have ever had to do. Medically, I knew that everything  was going to be fine and she was going to be taken care of, but giving your baby to strangers and having someone operate on him or her, is hard. This was all for Emma’s long-term benefit, but we didn’t want to put our baby girl through any pain.

Emma After Super Ankle Surgery

I think there are positives and negatives to have a child go through a surgery at such a young age. The positive is that he or she won’t  remember and are willing to go along with almost everything. However, the negative for us was knowing Emma had no idea what was going on, and we had no way to prepare her for it. She trusted us and we knew the difficulties she would have in the days, weeks, and months ahead.

I left Emma in the operating room at 8:17am and we were told it was going to be approximately  a five-hour surgery. This was the longest five hours of my life. Fortunately, we had a strong large family support system with us in the waiting room. In addition to the family, we were amazed at the tremendous amount of support given by the hospital staff and members of Dr. Standard’s team, especially Marilyn, the pediatric liaison, and Lee his nurse.

Marilyn sat and talked with us for quite a while during the surgery. This was so comforting and reassuring for us because although at times I wasn’t really listening to everything, she took our minds off of constantly thinking about Emma in surgery.

In addition, Lee from Dr. Standard’s clinic took us on a little field-trip to a conference room and discussed what to expect when our daughter would come out of surgery as well as how to manage an ex-fix after surger

She also gave us a training schedule for the fixator and a packet of very useful resources to help parents.

Road Trip Throughout Hospital In Her Wagon

At 2:09pm, we finally received a call that Emma was out of surgery and everything had gone well. We would be able to go back to see her in just a few moments.

My husband and I went back to see Emma and she was still sleepy and in some pain, but it wasn’t too long before she was eating a little popsicle.

As we finally made it to Emma’s hospital room, she was a little annoyed with everyone. She decided to express this in really the only way she knew how… remember, she was only 1 year old! She started growling at everyone! Anytime someone came near her, she would give them a ‘get away from me’ look and then growled. It was sad but so funny, Tim and I would laugh! We started calling her ‘the growler’.

 

We would take little trips in the wagon out of her room. We would go to the play room, downstairs to eat and we also visited the Build-A-Bear store located in the hospital. We made a bear ‘surgeon’ and named him Dr. Growl, in honor our little growler!

We spent five days in the hospital and everything went well without any complications. The morning Emma was released, we went to breakfast at Miss Shirley’s in Baltimore. This was our first meal outside of the hospital in five days! It was great plus we were blessed to make it a big family event to us to help celebrate!

Celebrating!! Our First Meal Outside The Hospital In 5 Days

After breakfast, we went back to our hotel and were amazed that Emma actually started to crawl on the hotel floor and even stand on her own!

Kids are amazingly resilient and adaptable. Before surgery I was trying to figure out how she was going to crawl because she was not walking yet. I thought it would be extremely difficult, but I was wrong. Emma caught on and figured things out without any problems.

We stayed in Baltimore for two weeks until her first post-op appointment with Dr Standard. She was doing great and it was back to Orlando!

Emma had her ex-fix on for almost three months and during that time she crawled,
learned to cruise around, and went swimming, and was genuinely a happy little girl.Emma Crawling With Her Ex-Fix

We had our new little baby girl, Taylor in June and when she was five weeks old we made a road trip in an RV back to Maryland for Emma’s ex-fix removal and cast placement.

We made it a fun little trip and during our RV trip we stopped at several places along the way.

Emma With Her Matching Ex-Fix Cover… At Disney

Emma had her quick surgical procedure to get the ex-fix off on July 13, 2012 as an outpatient. We were in and out in no time.

We left the hospital and stayed with family not too far from Baltimore before we got back on the road driving home.  We couldn’t wait to enjoy our girls!

Emma could now enjoy being without the fixator.

The morning after her ex-fix removal and cast placement, she slept in til about 12pm. I checked on her that morning just before she woke up and she looked so peaceful, she was sound asleep with her little hot pink cast on. About 10 minutes later, i heard her wake up and when I went to get her, she was sitting up in her crib with her cast in the opposite corner… she had wiggled her way out of it! I freaked out and yelled for my husband. He as well as the rest of my family came running downstairs to see what was going on.

Emma Is A Houdini And Wiggles Out Of Her Cast

My husband was so calm and I was the one who flipped out. Again things are completely different when it is your child because I am usually the calm one, at least about all the medical stuff. My favorite saying is “don’t worry, you’re fine”. Not that day, I just panicked.

I called Dr Standard that Saturday morning and we were back off to the hospital.

Emma must have known what she needed and what wasn’t needed because after Dr Standard looked at her post-op X-rays, he decided that her tibia looked so good that she really didn’t need her cast. We were told we could use it as a splint and take it on or off depending on if we felt she needed it or tailor it to her comfort level.

Dr Standard said that sometimes kids like to keep their cast on because having had something on their leg for so long, they feel more secure.

Well that wasn’t true for Emma. She didn’t crawl on it right away but it really didn’t take her long.

That afternoon my parents, husband, and I took Emma shoe shopping for the first time to buy her first real pair of shoes. Before surgery no shoes really fit her foot/ankle so after several attempts and many frustrating trips to the mall, we stopped looking for shoes.

This was a big event and something I won’t forget when we bought her first real pair of shoes and they stayed on!

Emma Doesn’t Want To Wear This Thing AnymoreEmma’s First Shoe Shopping