Surgery #2: Day 1 Post-Op Report

Avery has been comfortable today. They have kept her pretty sedated and pain free under the neurosurgeons orders. They want her to be comfortable and give the brain a bit of time to heal and re-equilibrate without a bunch of movement of discomfort reactions on her part. We certainly agreed with that being just the day following surgery and all. Her head bandages and wrap are still on and she does not seem as swollen as she was by this point following the first surgery. That is nice to see. Her hemoglobin was a bit low today, so they did take her for a CAT Scan to be safe. It was fine and everything else was also good...nothing was pointing to any problems. There are plenty of valid and unconcerning reasons that her hemoglobin could be low...one being the fact that she has hereditary spherocytosis which itself can alter the number to the low side (or below) of normal. I think hers has always been a bit lower if I remember correctly from all the blood work she's had done in Indy under her Hematologist following the spherocytosis. Anyway, not a concern at this point anyway. And, it was great to have a CAT scan that didn't indicate there were any problems they were not aware of or seeing signs of. Thank God for that! We also have not seen any sign of the "yuckies" and hope not to. Tomorrow they plan to extubate her (remove her breathing tube). I'm sure she will be able to share how unhappy she is with us then! What a strong little girl she has been though! She has come through 2 huge brain surgeries in less than 3 weeks and did so with no real problems or concerns while in the OR. Talk about answered prayers! She was resting very peacefully when I left her at 11:45 PM. Tomorrow will be a more interesting day for us all. Please keep her in your prayers. Pray for a quick, easy, and full recovery and that the you-know-what are gone for good. We all will be doing that on this end. Mom and Dad Paauwe leave us tomorrow. They were able to come back up here for a quick trip to sit through the surgery and support us and relieve us all today. That gave is a much needed rest today! My Mom, Jon, and I are pretty much constantly busy with either sitting and helping care for Avery, advocating for her, taking care of Caiden, washing clothes, making sure we all get fed and cleaned up from time to time, etc. Thank goodness my mom has been able to be out here with us all this time...it would be tough without her help, and her knowledge too. We are very thankful for all her help. We are also thankful for everyone else's help everywhere. So much has been done for us and we are grateful for all of it, no matter how "small" the deed. We, personally, don't think any of it has been small. We hope that being a partner in this journey with us has given something back to each of you. Avery has brought so many people together; it's incredible! How blessed we are. On a bit of a bummed note, Jon and I did not manage to out-run or out-vitamin the cold bug Caiden got and is still dealing with a bit. When I awoke this morning and consciously swallowed, I knew instantly that I had not escaped it. Jon had already felt it coming on yesterday. So, know we are medicating ourselves and trying desperately not to pass it on to anyone else. To that end, we are only going in to Avey's room with face masks on. Not the most comfortable thing to wear for hours, but well worth not passing it along to anyone else...especially not our Avery or another sick child. Caiden is doing better each day though, so we know that it won't last forever. Well, I guess that is about it. Not much more I can think of to report. Thanks for all the emails, calls, prayers, mail, etc. yesterday, today, and each day. We love getting them! Thanks to God for all He has provided today and yesterday. We look forward to all He will provide tomorrow. Much love and respect, Holly