Graysen is progressing, slow but sure. She is incredibly tough and determined.
And sweet. Thanking everyone repeatedly and asking how everyone else is doing and apologizing for being so much trouble. Oh, the lessons this child teaches me.
Graysen is soft on others but hard on herself. She's been pushing herself to do a little more, sit up a little longer, walk a little farther, and just getting a little better as each day goes on.
She has most of her tubes taken off now, with just a couple little things left to have removed. She is trying to eat a little more, although she has no appetite yet. She's staying awake longer and starting to get her voice back.
Today Graysen worked hard. She had a shower (which took four of us helping to pull off!), she walked 3 different times - going a little bit farther each time, and she got her first post-op X-ray of new, straight back! Yay! We were disappointed not to get to take a pic of the new x-ray, but hopefully we can see that soon.
The day went well, but the evening had a rough patch. It's only been three days since surgery and Graysen has made tremendous progress, but it's still very early and she's still in quite a bit of pain.
Hiccups. They don't feel great when you haven't had your spine operated on. They really don't feel good when you have. Graysen kept getting the hiccups today, and it was more upsetting and painful than you would think. We figured out that if we did a breathing treatment when the hiccups started, it would steady her breathing and the hiccups would go away. But the breathing treatments are still hard for her, so those episodes were hard on Graysen.
But, back to the good stuff. Graysen is clean - no more pigpen! She's making big strides in her walking. She's drinking liquids really well. She's off her IV pain meds and taking only oral pain medications and muscle relaxers now. She watched a little tv and read as many messages as she could.
On top of all that, Graysen got a visit from McSwaggy today! Dr. Geck came in and sat with us for a while and just visited with us. He told us about his family, his hobbies, and his ostrich skin cowboy boots. He and Graysen discussed books they like and disagreed about whether or not Divergent or the new Spiderman movie are any good. He told us all of his favorite places to eat in Austin and which ones to skip. We told him about the nickname she gave him and he thought it was quite funny! It was a great visit and once again, the good doctor made Graysen feel so at ease:)
But, the absolute highlight of Graysen's day came in the evening, while Tim and I were helping her do her last walking practice. We went farther down the hall than we had earlier in the day and we came across one of those portable all-in-one measure/weigh yourself scales. Graysen practically ran to get on it. (Okay, that's a complete and total exaggeration of the truth - but she would have run if she could have!)
Tim and I, along with her nurse helped her up onto the platform and the nurse measured how tall Graysen is now. Now that her spine is straight.
5'5. Graysen is now five foot, five inches - or maybe just a hair more than that.
She was thrilled. She is a more than an inch taller than she was with her crooked back. I mean, what girl doesn't want to be just a little bit taller?!
It made her already pretty good day even better. I don't know if it was better than McSwaggy, but it was close:)
Please keep praying for good pain management, for the hiccups to stay away, and for Graysen to be able to eat. Please pray for Graysen to become stronger and more steady on her feet (she gets a little light-headed when she's sitting, standing, or walking. Please pray that her progress keeps moving in a positive direction and she will be ready to leave the hospital in the next day or two.
Thanks so much for all the love, support, and prayers. She loves hearing all of your messages:)
Look at that straight back!
"Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer."
Romans 12:12
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