The Day After Yesterday (01/15/2009)

Hello,
This is Matt P, Megan's other half....not the good half either. :) I'll be writing this blog for Megan for just a day or two.

First of all, the OPERATION WENT GREAT!!!!!!!!!!!! And now I can get into the details.

Wednesday 01/14/2009

3:45AM - We (Megan, me & her Mom & Dad) get up from only a few hours sleep

4AM - Sharon (Megan's mom) braided her hair, as was a tip (to keep her hair from going crazy) from an online friend of Megan's who had the surgery before. She actually had to end up taking the braid out before the operation (doctor's orders!)

5:50AM - We finally arrive at the hospital (about a 45 minute drive), check in and wait.

6:10AM - Wendy (Megan's sister) arrives and shortly after Megan is called into the back where she gets evaluated (weight, blood pressure) and gets prepped for the surgery. As only one person was allowed to go with her to be prepped, she of course chose her mom.

7:30AM - Me, Wendy & Ron (Megan's dad) are allowed to see Megan for a few minutes before the surgery. When we got in she was already hooked up to an IV and they were giving her her first dose of "the good stuff". Then her doctor (Dr. Hostin) came up and discussed the surgery with all of us. He was in a wonderful mood lifting every ones spirits up and he was very confident about the surgery.

7:45AM - Now we are all waiting in are own personal waiting room, thinking the surgery has already begun. They told us that they would update us with a phone call every hour.

8:30AM - We get our first call and they tell us that Megan is resting comfortably and that they just started. We were told earlier that the operation should take anywhere between 4 and 5 hours. So we are looking at about 1:00PM when her surgery should be done.

10AM - Megan's aunt Jayne & lovely baby Grace came to wait with us. Ive never seen a more relaxed baby than Grace. She did not cry once. It has been over an hour now and nobody has called us yet! We are getting worried!

10:45AM - We finally get a call from nurse Tracy. She apologizes for not calling and says that things have been "a little wild in here" and that they are about half way done putting in the screws and would make sure and call every hour from now, on the dot. She said it was going smoothly but...what in the heckfire does "a little wild in here" mean anyway!? That's not a good choice of words IMO.

Over the next few hours a slew of people have been calling every one's phone asking about our Megan. :Kelsey, my mother, Billie Boy, Carra, Kelli, Joe, Danielle, Aunt Sheila, Janet, Barry, Misty and I'm sure I am forgetting some. (Sorry!)
Also, the Guest Services coordinator, Robyn, has been a big help to all of us. She has been answering every question we could possibly have and ones we didn't even think to ask. Thanks Robyn!

11:36AM - Nurse Tracy calls again and says everything is still going smoothly and that they have all the screws in and will now start tightening the screws and making the adjustments. She also informs us that it still might be another 3 hours before they are done, just making it a little over what was expected.

It sure is hard to kill time in a situation like this. Everyone is trying to do something besides worry. Sharon is trying crosswords, I try a little to read (but end up reading the same page about 10 times before I even realize it), then we got Ron breaking the tension with humor every so often. Something about a stolen rubber glove blown up at random times throughout the day by Ron sure is a comic relief!

12:50PM - We get the hourly informative call from Tracy saying that they are finishing up adjusting her new hardware and that they should be finished shortly.

1:45PM - Tracy calls for a final time saying that they are irrigating her wound and are starting the process of closing her up.

AND 2:15PM - All DONE!!!!!!!! Dr. Hostin (the main surgeon) came in and said it was a complete success. He told us that Megan's spine was a lot stiffer then he thought and that is why it took a little longer than expected, but that she is almost 100% straight in her back! It also took a little longer because Megan wanted to get some pics of her while in surgery. That's so Megan of her to want pics of that!

Relief!!! We get to go see her in about an hour!, as they have to make sure she is doing OK and get her ready for ICU.

3PM - We finally go upstairs to the ICU and get to see her. She is so pale! but looks good. They told us that they did not have to do any transfusions or anything like that, so that's a relief. She has tons of IVs in her, hooked up to oxygen and has lots of other futuristic computers around her. She is much more coherent than any of us expected and was even being witty! Though in tremendous pain she understands what just happened and start to fall in love with the Morphine button! Ron, trying to turn on the TV, hits some button that makes alarms sound, we all start to freak out...but the nurses came and fixed it and said it was nothing. Ha!

Kelsey comes to visit around 5:30PM and we all hang out till visiting hours are over at 8PM. Kelsey was a great influence on all of us.

Good night Megan! We all Love you!

Thursday 01/15/2009

8:20AM - I arrive to find out that Megan had a pretty rough night. :( She was in a lot of pain and was awake most of the night. Her breathing even slowed to 4 times a minute whenever she did fall asleep, but they said she will be OK. Megan said her nurse for the night (Donna) was a great help for her time in need and spent most of the night by her side. But she forgot to say goodbye to her when her shift was done and she said she would. But we forgive you! Thanks for being there for her when we could not.

Megan, today is doing much better than yesterday. She has her color back in her face and is getting to eat ice chips and even drink some iced tea! Doctors come in every hour or so and X-ray her and such. It causes her a lot of pain, but she understands that it must be done and she is so strong!

We love You Megan!

Be back shortly.....I've been rambling to long and now I need to see her.
Sorry for the lack of Thesaurus skills, Megan will be writing on here again in a few days, so the writing will be up to par from what you have come to expect.

Matt P