This is the next chapter in our long struggle with sick babies. Of course, the story began over 16 years ago. If you are just tuning in, you may want to start at the beginning.
Previous Chapter: Another Waiting Game
After an uneasy night of broken sleep, I was awakened at 5:30 a.m. to Colleen faintly crying. The fold-out chair that I was sleeping on was right beside her bed, so I merely reached over to hold Colleen’s hand and made a sweet face at her. She stopped crying and smiled at me. She smiled at me! How could this ten month old baby be smiling at me so soon after surgery, while still in so much pain?
Just a few moments later, the nurse came in to tell me they were moving us to a different room. Hubby was still asleep in the Parent Lounge, so the nurse said she would go tell him we were moving. She wasn’t kidding. She walked in to tell me about the move while at the same time helping me pick our things up to move! Within a few minutes, we were in another room. Hubby found us and walked over to see his baby girl. He simply said good morning to Colleen, and she looked up at him and smiled!
In those two moments alone we saw the essence of her name (her real name, not the blog name) and of Judah’s prayer for his little sister before we left him~ “Colleen Joy—Joy be down in your heart.” What a faithful God we serve!
Colleen had an IV in each arm. They were only using one of them, but both had been put in during surgery so they left them both in just in case the one hooked up went bad. So both of Colleen’s hands were taped down onto a board and then wrapped with these big stiff wraps to protect the IVs from getting pulled out. They also kept her from pulling the NG tube out of her nose. She looked like she had clubs instead of hands, and she couldn’t use them at all. So we had a baby who was feeling a bit better, could only lay flat in bed, could not use her hands at all, and really wanted the tube out of her nose.
We spent the morning trying to entertain Colleen with her baby doll, her stuffed bear, and the other toys that we had brought with us. Nothing worked for very long. Finally we strung together a bunch of interlocking rings. We formed a chain and used the IV holders that were hung from the ceiling to hang the chain across Colleen’s bed. The chain was just long enough to suspend a rattling, brightly colored toy above Colleen. It was just low enough that she could swat it with her wrapped hands. She was so happy that she could finally play with something!
When the pain medicines would wear off, Colleen was fussy. We could tell she still wasn’t feeling great, but she wasn’t sleeping or crying all of the time like she had been the day before.
We had visits from two of the sets of grandparents that day around lunch time. They felt so much better to see that Colleen was not in agony, and were shocked to see that she would smile at them. Hubby and I went to lunch and left Colleen in the care of her grandparents.
One of the grandmas had given us a couple of dollars with the instruction to buy Colleen a balloon on the way back from lunch. We chose one of those small balloons on a stick that are not helium balloons. It was Bert from Sesame Street. His body was inflated but his arms were just flat and floppy. We thought maybe Colleen would love it since she always loved watching Bert and Ernie on television.
Colleen was thrilled with this little balloon! Hubby put Bert’s floppy hand inside the “IV club” that was not in use. Her fingers were not taped down, so she was able to grasp the balloon. This brought a big smile! She was so happy to be able to play with a toy that she started really shaking that balloon. Then she laughed! She had the best time shaking that balloon! We all started laughing with joy!
You would have been hard pressed to guess that her surgery was just 24 hours before. In fact, the nurse walked in to see what all the laughing was about. She was so shocked. She said babies do not smile and laugh 24 hours after surgery. We had thought it was normal, but once again, it was the favor of God.
We spent the rest of that day (Saturday) and Sunday playing music and entertaining Colleen when she was not sleeping. She would get fussy when her pain meds were wearing off, but the rest of the time she seemed okay. They had been giving her two different pain medications—one was given every 3 hours and the other was given every 6 hours. The first day, they didn’t want them to wear off. After that, we were told to ask for them whenever she seemed to be having pain. For the rest of the weekend, she only needed the 3-hour medication every 5 hours and the 6-hour medication every 8 or 9 hours. The nurses kept telling us how shocked they were at how well she was doing.
“Colleen” Joy~ the fragrance of joy.
God is so sweet to us, isn’t He?
The one thing we still needed to happen was for Colleen to poop. She couldn’t eat until she pooped. The waiting seemed endless, but the nurses assured us that it takes this long. So far, it had been the day of surgery and 2 days after surgery. Still no poop.
We were hoping that the next day would bring poop.
We were ready for this journey out of Hirschsprung’s Disease to be over.
Next Chapter: A 45-Minute Diaper Change
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