Monday

I checked Jasmine out of school at 12, we stopped and got McD’s and took it up to Shriners. Once we got there we went up stairs in the playroom to eat, Jasmine was really excited because I let her go downstairs to the cafeteria by herself to get some ketchup. After eating she got an x-ray, then we got settled into her room. Aunt Erin came up and we were hanging out, and I got a call from Brandon. Apparantly his boss decided Brandon needed to be here for Jasmine’s surgery and was flying him home again! Luckily I have the best sister in the whole world and she came back later that night and hung out with Jasmine while I ran to the airport and picked Brandon up. By the time Brandon and I got back to the hospital it was almost 11, so he hung out with us for just a bit and then went home to try and get some sleep. I kept telling Jasmine she needed to go to sleep and her argument was that she’d be sleeping all day during her surgery, kind of hard reasoning to argue with, but we got to sleep finally about 12:30. Through out the evening Jasmine was in really good spirits and was handling it all very well. She even went out with a bunch of other kids and made a ground hog with green poofy balls for the grass, white poofy balls for the clouds, blue feathers for the sky and brown felt cut in the shape of a ground hog with his mouth drawn on and a googly eye.



Also earlier in the evening one of her doctors had looked at the x-ray and noticed that the top hook on one of the rods had detattched from her spine! No wonder the girl had been complaing that her back hurt! Also I had told her doctor that I had noticed her neck was rolling forward a bit at the top of the rods. Due to both of these complications they needed to open the top up again to reattatch the rod and move both of them up one vertebrea. This would hopefully stop her neck from rolling forward anymore.

Tuesday

6:30 came way too fast by my clock, but that’s when they came in to give her a valium before the surgery. It was the usual run down, hang out in the room as they get her ready, put goopy stuff on her hand where the IV will go, no eating or drinking, hang out some more. Brandon got back up there, looking very tired by the way. About 8am they came and wheeled her back into the pre-op room where we waited again for about 10 minutes. Jasmine was really nervous and crying, but doing ok. About 8:20 they rolled her back into surgery saying that due to having to move the top ones too the surgery would be about 3 hours. Brandon and I spent the morning in her room hanging out after getting something to eat. Half way through the surgery a nurse called and said all was going well. Almost exactly 3 hours later they rolled Jasmine back into her room, already grumpy as could be! She immediately ate a popsicle, and within 20 minutes wanted to get up and go to the bathroom.



Don’t know if anyone has ever had surgery, but eating, drinking, walking and going to the bathroom are all very good signs! Infact we had a hard time convincing her she needed to stay laying down! I mostly attribute this to the local anesthetic because once it wore off she was a little less gung ho about getting up and walking. After the popsicle she also ate some jello and then devoured 2 bowls of chicken noodle soup. We had to make her stop eating to, saying we needed to let her tummy settle before she ate anymore. Next we went down and got a new x-ray done. Luckily the girls in x-ray are awesome and always let us check out the x-rays after they take them. They have a new system at Shriners where everything is computerized, so they don’t have to develop them anymore and just pull them up on the computer screen. It’s really nice because they pulled up Mondays x-rays right next to the new ones so we could see the difference. The old hooks at the top pointed out towards her shoulder blades, and the new ones pointed in towards her spine. Dr. D’Astous thought the new placement would hold them better. Also the rolling of her neck seemed slightly improved. Back upstairs to battle Jasmine to stay in bed, keep her IV in, and the pulse oximeter on her toe. Needless to say she was one grumpy girl. I know, I know, who can blame her with everything she’s been through right? But after telling her for the fiftieth time why she has to leave the IV in, can’t get up and walk around, has to have the stupid light on her toe I was getting rather frustrated. Luckily eventually it was time for Brandon and I to go home and get some sleep. (thus the quick post from last night) Jasmine’s dad spent the night in the hospital with her.



Wednesday

4:30 am is WAY to early to be awake! Brandon’s plane was leaving about 6, so this is when we had to leave the house. Took him to the airport, went back home showered and headed back up to the hospital. I was downtown by 6:30 so I stopped at Smith’s and wandered around for a half an hour before going up there. But even at 7 she was still sleeping, so I hung out in the playroom for another half an hour before her dad woke up. First thing he tells me is that her doctor might want to keep her an extra day since she had to get the upper parts of her rods moved. I get into the room and she continues to sleep till 9 when her doctor comes in, she wakes up long enough for him to quickly examine her and ask a few questions. Luckily he decided she could go home today! Not that she wouldn’t have been able to deal with staying there another day I just know she’d be a lot more comfortable at home. Anyway the bad news of the morning was if this surgery doesn’t work and the rods continue to dislodge or her neck continues to roll her doctor said we’d have to explore other options, like doing a halo. UGH! FRAK! NOOOOOOOO! Were my basic thoughts on that. For a halo they put screws in the kids head and then traction from their head and they run around in these little walker looking things for 6 weeks, the ENTIRE time we’d have to live at the hospital. Ya, know you know why I had that reaction. But we’re keeping our fingers crossed she won’t have to do that. Back to today, Jasmine fell back asleep and she slept and she slept and she slept. About noon her dad had to get going, and she slept some more. Finally about 12:30 she woke up and decided she was ready to go home. Unfortunately the brace guys hadn’t been up to check her brace and make sure it was still doing what they wanted it to do. Her nurse called down and found out they had decided they were too busy and scheduled her for tomorrow. ugh. Option one stay the night in the hospital again and have the 11am appointment Thursday, option 2 go home come back up for 11am appointment. We went for option 2, duh! So down to the car we went, got her settled into her carseat, had to stop driving to re-adjust her to make her more comfortable 3 times and she was still asleep by the time we got on the freeway! We got home and she went straight into bed and slept till 5pm when I woke her up to give her pain meds, at which point she finally woke up. She wanted to play with her new webkinz. The rest of the evening was uneventful until I told her it was almost time for bed. Of course she insisted she wasn’t tired, to which I insisted I didn’t care she was going to get back on a normal sleep pattern if it killed me! Luckily it didn’t I just told her that’s how she was going to get better faster. So now she sleeps again. We’ll see how long that lasts!

We go back in 3-4 weeks for a check up and if all is well she’ll be getting another extension in 5 months. Kinda crappy saying that if all goes well she’ll get more surgery, but more surgery is better then a halo!

So all in all it went well even with a few bumps in the road. Jasmine is in good spirits as usual again, thanks to massive amounts of sleep! I’m doing good, just tired.

Thank you to everyone for your love and support! We appreciate you all!