But of course, Ella was a trooper and full of smiles as usual when we arrived at the hospital :)
Once the doctors and nurses started coming in to talk to us, some anxiety kicked in, so the anesthesiologist gave Ella a little something to calm her nerves...it definitely did the trick!
The surgery lasted about three hours and it went exceptionally well! Dr. Grayhack was able to put the stronger plate and screws in with a little bone from Ella's pelvis for extra stability. He said the screws were holding the plate VERY well :) She will NOT require an additional surgery!!!
Ella had a rough time coming out of anesthesia and was in a lot of pain (mostly her knee). She does not like her cast, even though it is hot pink and her baby doll has a matching one! She keeps asking every nurse and doctor if they can take it off (even if just for a little bit). She will have the cast on for 6 weeks.
Right now Ella has a lumbar epidural in place with a continuous analgesic (nerve block) running as well as two IV pain medications. With these medications, she has been able to drift off a little bit here and there and get some rest :)
Ella is also battling some nausea and vomiting, so she is on an anti-nausea medication. We started a very basic formula through her g-tube a little while ago (at a very slow rate), but she is still unable to even keep water down so we are also going to be giving her some nutrition through her IV.
Currently, the plan is for Ella to stay in the PICU for a couple of days and then move up to the pulmonary floor and go from there. We're not yet sure how long she will be staying in the hospital, but we'd love for her to be able to come home sometime this weekend.
We're hoping she's able to get some sleep tonight and that we're able to effectively manage her pain and nausea/vomiting moving forward.
We will continue to update Ella's blog with her progress :)
Thank you so much for all of your kind words, thoughts and prayers for our Squishy!! We could never do this without ALL of you!!
