I left Thursday evening for home. My girl's back looked, less than appealing.. but we were watching it closely. My mom was at the hospital Thursday night and Friday night. Jake drove down Saturday and just left a bit ago.
Over the weekend, it got worse.. and worse.. and worse (ps.. picture at the bottom.. don't look if.. ya know.. weak stomach). Her eating became less.. and less.. and less. Everyone was super stressed.
Sunday the decision was made to go ahead with the NG tube. Girlfriend was just not getting enough protein to heal that back. Poor daddy had to be there for it. They said she handled it better than expected. Another reason for the NG tube was because her back looked.. awful. They wanted to start her on antibiotics. The amount she needed to take and the taste required an NG tube. Okay, fiiiiiiiiiiine.
Her back was also developing a rash. The new brace doesn't allow much breathing room so the sweat and heat was causing a rash so they started her on nystatin cream for it. They also initially said she could leave the brace off when she was lying flat in bed.. but changed it to "keep it off" all weekend to allow the rash to simmer and the incision to heal.
However, this morning when everyone was rounding, they thought about putting a wound vac on it. Now, I didn't see what it looked like yesterday or today.. but I have heard a description of everyone's reactions to it. If someone medical is struggling to look at a wound.. you know it's bad.
When Dr. Mangano rounded, he decided to take her to the OR.. like.. ASAP to open it up, clean it up and reclose it.
I had already planned on coming to Cincy today because it's the day Jake and I switch off.. so I was pretty close to ready.. but I had my girls. I was planning on bringing them down to visit Vivian. But, with surgery in our very near future.. I called my sister (and brother) to come watch Bryn and Aubrey. They were about 40 minutes away so my best friend (who lives 3 minutes away) came over until then. I jumped in the car and made it to the hospital about 15 minutes before they took her to the OR.
The surgery lasted just under 2 hours. They put new stitches in her. Actually, I'm not sure what they put in her. I meant to re-ask once I got my mind right.. but I didn't. Instead of "running stitches" they put in individual stitches (that might not even be the right word.. I'm not sure..). These stitches can stay in for months if need be. However, they apparently suck coming out.. so once she is healed enough.. they'll take her BACK to the OR to take them out. The good thing about these is.. if some heal quicker than others.. they can take individual ones out as deemed necessary. The other ones had to come out all at the same time.
Dr. Mangano said everything looked good. Her upper back was very inflamed and causing the healing tissue to stretch, it was just a matter of time before it opened up completely. They did cultures to make sure there is no infection. They have her on IV antibiotics just in case. In 3 days, if the cultures don't grow anything, she will come off of them,
The are going to start her on nutrition through her NG tube. I guess they started some last night.. but there are new orders to Nutrition to revise what she gets.
Vivian will have to lie flat for a week.. well, at least 5 days. Obviously, she can't participate in therapy if she has to lie flat, so we were transferred to the neurology unit for the next week. We've been here before. It's fine. Hopefully we can get back to rehab by the weekend, but definitely by Monday.
This will change our discharge date. Womp.. womp.. womp. You guys know how pumped I was to get my girl home,
But I need her well when she comes home. So this was all a very necessary evil.
Keep my girl in your prayers. She's been through a lot. She's tough though.
The wound pictures below were taken Thursday. Since then, all those open spots started draining (and throbbing with her heartbeat). The big blister opened up. You can see how the skin is thin and stretched.. surgery was to avoid all of that completely opening up.
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