The morning learning

We were up bright and early this morning. Around 6:30 Abby was walking the halls with her walker. PT should be coming in any minute to help her transition to crutches, which will be easier to go home with. She really only needs them until she can bear weight without pain. She can't do much physical activity, though, until after the first of the year because of the hole in her bone. I told Abby she can't do gym class until after Christmas and she cried. I asked what was wrong, and she said Mr. Martinich (the gym teacher) says he can't grade you if you don't participate. How will she get graded and will he be mad? I reassured her the best I could that all would be ok.

Dr. Lyon, the head orthopedic, also came in the morning. It seems it's "just" a staph infection, but in her bone. I tried to determine if this was at all related to Ava's infection, but it doesn't seem that it is. I also asked if there's a way to prevent this in the future. Nope. He says it's like getting struck by lightning. Very odd that she got it without being sick, or a broken bone, or old. He told Abby it could prevented if she brushed her teeth twice a day and eats her broccoli. Then he laughed. I told him I'd give him a list of things he should tell her. But all that being said, they finished growing the culture and are now testing the susceptibility levels with the antibiotics she's on. If the antibiotics work on the culture, she can go home tomorrow. If they don't, she'll have to stay at least another day. All liklihood is that she'll go home tomorrow. (YEAH!!!!)

The biggest thing this morning, other than learning she may go home tomorrow, was getting her drain removed. As soon as she found out they were taking it out today, she started screaming and weeping, and asking me if it would hurt. I've tried all along to not lie to her, so of course couldn't say whether it would hurt or not. But I told her if she could relax it would go easier. That didn't work. It was probably 30 minutes of crying and screaming while she went from her wheelchair to the bed, and then to get the tape off. She hated getting the tape off because even with the adhisive remover, it still pulls the hair and skin. Then they had to cut a stitch, which just looked like it would hurt when they got the scissors out, so that was hard for her. Then the drain literally fell out, Abby cried "When will it be done?", we said it was out, and she looked at it and went oh, that wasn't so bad. Until the PICC line comes out, that should be the last of the hurt, at least.

Afterwards the nurse let her pick a prize out of the prize box. They were pretty good prizes and we were helping her pick... puzzles, little games, crayons. Dave picked up a box and said, "A new jump rope?" I looked at him and he was serious. I said, "Really? She can't do anything physical for two months and you want her to get a jump rope?" Luckily, Abby was doing well by then and thought it was quite funny, too.

So it's been a great morning with everything going really well and a tentative plan in place. From here we'll see where it goes--school and other things kind of depends on her tolerance level, so maybe half days for awhile, but we'll see!