Surgery and Beyond

Guest Post-er: Angela writing in Marida's absence!

Marida asked me to blog while she's too drugged to write!  So here's what has happened since last Wednesday (from my perspective):

April 20, Wednesday:  Marida spent quite a bit of time packing up her room at Shriner's.  She had accumulated quite a bit of stuff in her 2 month stay there.  I told her I needed to rent a U-Haul to get it all out of there.  I got there at about 5:00 that evening and started putting things in my car and quickly realized it was never going to all fit.  So we called the Taylors (who were driving to Cape the next day to close on their house) and they came in their van and got most of it!!  

At 7:00 I ran to the airport to pick Jim up...he was arriving from Europe.  We all settled down at Shriner's for about 4 hours sleep before we had to be at Children's Hospital at 5:30 the next morning.

The staff at Shriner's ADORE Marida (that's the part she's not going to tell you!).  They were all so excited about her surgery.  

April 21, Thursday: Surgery Day:
Surgery started at 9:00.  Marida got pretty nervous but drugs are amazing.  They told her to give me a hug in pre-op, put some meds in her central line and she immediately went limp like a wet noodle!  She said, "Wow, that's fast", and she was OUT!
I then spent the next 7 hours in our private waiting room (mostly alone since Jim had to get home to take care of Michael...and my friend Becky came for a while) getting updates every hour about the progress.

At 4:00 Dr Lenke and Dr Little (her FAVORITE doctor on the planet...her doc from Shriner's) came to give me a post-op report.  Dr Lenke actually took pictures during the surgery for Marida.  He had a stack of them in his hands, he stood there and put them in order and handed them to me.  I looked at the first one and nearly passed out!!  She'll love having them but OMG....not me!  He did it for her because he's excited about her going to med school.  

He explained to me that the surgery went well but that he had to do more than normal.  He had to actually cut pieces of 5 of her ribs in order to get to her spine because her ribs had grown around her spine....OUCH!  That makes her MAJOR surgery and recovery harder because it's also like having 5 cracked ribs.  The best thing he said though is that the protrusion on her back is 80% gone....with most correction coming after the second surgery!!  That's when I cried!!  

Dr. Little stayed after  Dr Lenke left and told me that she got to put in 3 of the 27 screws in Marida's spine!  That was Marida's biggest hope: that Dr. Little would put her permanent mark on her!!

Marida went to Intensive Care that night and had a pretty tough night, but nothing like what was to come!!

April 22, Friday (the day that is forever missing in Marida's mind now!)
This day was spent in ICU.  Marida had her first physical therapy session which was very painful.  The PT came in with 2 student PT students.  As one student PT stepped up to sit her up, Marida said, "No, I want him to do it!"  Even in her drugged state, she knew she wanted the PT and not the student!!  

She got moved to a room on the 10th floor late in the around Friday.  

The days that followed are a blur of unbelievable pain, PT, nurses coming at all hours, more pain, asking for better meds, and on and on!

She finally got moved back to Shriners on Monday, April 25.  I've got more to say, but I'll say it later.

For now, let me just say that Marida is one of the most courageous and brave young women I've ever  known!    She's my hero, Indian Princess!!!