I thought that life would go back to normal almost straight away, but I was so, so wrong. Things were anything but normal our first full day at home, and it didn't look like it would improve at least until Ellie was allowed to bottle feed and take the splints off. I was on the move and completely absorbed in Ellie from the moment I woke up. Everything took longer than it used to, and I barely had time for a cup of coffee, let alone to play with poor Sophie.
Here's an idea of how the day panned out:
Wake up. Just about the only time during the day that Ellie was happy was when she was waking up.
nappy change. The constant pain medication had given her a horrible nappy rash, and her poor little bum was bleeding in places.
physio. We were given physio exercises to do with Ellie's arms while she was wearing the splints. At each nappy change we had to take the splints off and bend and stretch her arms, elbows and shoulders, so that the muscles didn't become stiff and sore.
Massage tear ducts. The opthomologist had said that massaging under her eye and towards her nose might help clear the duct, and we were willing to try anything to avoid another procedure for our princess.
Lip cream. There was a special antibiotic cream we had to apply to her lip to keep it moist and germ free.
Medication. As well as the usual Zantac for her reflux, we were giving panadol every four hours. I wanted to stay on top of the pain before it got too bad, and that seemed to be the best way. I'm sure there were times that she didn't need it, but I'd rather give an extra dose than wit for her to be in pain.
Feed. Even with our new trick of feeding her in the car seat, it still took forever and resulted in a lot of screaming. I dreaded feed time. I knew that she would scream the whole time she was being fed, and her screams cut straight through me. A good feed took just under an hour. A bad one took up to an hour and a half.
Sleep. Because she put so much effort in to fighting her feed, she was exhausted by the time she finished, and ready to sleep almost straight away. But that didn't mean she wasn't going to go down easily. Napping was never her strong point, and post-op was no exception. I was lucky if she'd sleep for 40 minutes before it was time to begin the whole process again.
By the end of the day I was beyond exhausted, and my nerves were fried from all the screaming. To top it all off, she had stopped sleeping through the night, and because Drew didn't know how to feed her it was up to me to take the night feed as well as the days. It felt like things were never going to get better, but I just kept reminding myself that soon the splints would come off and she would be able to take a bottle again. It couldn't happen soon enough as far as I was concerned!
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