Across the weekend we have had many ups and downs. You have some good times, followed by some bad times, followed by something good... you get the picture.
On Saturday we began to see a little bit of the old Riley back. As you could have probably guessed; her first few days post-surgery she would barely crack a smile. Why would you when you are uncomfortable, sore and every hour you have a nurse come either to prod you or to make you take medicines that you can barely keep down. Slowly but surely she began to gain back her personality. We took her for a walk this morning to where the toys are on the ward and it was so good to see her come alive again; using her imagination and enjoying herself once more. It has been sorely missed; there have been glimmers of her old self but it was almost like everything was normal again at play time.
But towards the afternoon today; Riley was a mess. Blame it on not getting enough sleep when she wants to because a nurse needs to do something or a doctor needs to check something; plus having to do so many things she doesn't want to. By the end of today; she was over it. That's the rollercoaster; something good, then something not so good.
One good thing; over the past few days we have seen Riley drinking a lot and eating plenty. The idea of her having a feeding tube inserted became such a non-issue that the subject was never brought up again. That was a relief because the last thing we needed was yet another intrusive thing to happen to her. It happens so often during the day that you got to feel for her. Blood tests, dressing changes, multiple medicines staggered across the day and so much more. I am sure she will be glad when she gets a bit of agency back where she can say she doesn't want to do something and it isn't ignored because this is something that has to be done to get better.
One more of those intrusive things is actually a bit of a win; though she probably didn't think so at the
time. What everybody is waiting on is for the chest drains to come out. Three were placed in her at her surgery as she has excess fluids as a result of the drastic changes in her body. That means you are watching these drains every day to see what level they are at. Once they stop draining to an acceptable level then they can be removed. So we were happy to hear that one was ready to be taken out. Only problem is that getting them out isn't the most comfortable thing and Riley was not a happy camper. Lots of screams and lots of tears. But if we want to leave then it has to be done.
So we have two more that we are waiting on; they can fluctuate. Across the weekend they were was a lot but today the remaining two have come down a significant amount. Praise God for that! But we are still not there yet and there is the possibility that one of them could shoot up again; we will wait and see. The funny thing is that we have so many different doctors visit us throughout the day and I swear they all finish their conversations with "Now remember the drains could take a while so just be patient". As if this is news to us or something?
We are actually not anxious or impatient about it strangely enough; we had mentally prepared ourselves for it being a minimum of two weeks in hospital and anything before that is just a beautiful unexpected blessing.
Even though Riley has had good times and also times where she has really struggled; I have seen courage and bravery within her. Throughout the many times where she is not coping as something is happening to her; of course her default is to not do it but then I see her push through and get the job done. Sometimes I wish she would get the job done a little quicker or in a little less dramatic fashion but she does get there in the end every time. She has a resilience within herself that I don't think she always knows is there but Jess and I see it. It's been really hard for her but through tears and a little coaxing; she pushes through.
Hopefully there is not too much more that we have to put her through. Even though I know she wouldn't agree with me; she is up to the task. We only have two more drains to go!
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