Purple Cement

Since noon yesterday, Aliyah's pain management has been much improved.  In fact, today we started increasing the time between her doses of Oxycodone from 3 to 4 hours.  After we arrived home on Thursday, Randy put his engineering skills to work and designed a spreadsheet that keeps me organized with all of her meds, diaper checks, and repositioning needs.  It eliminates the need for thinking in my deliriously tired state, especially in the middle of the night.  I love how God has given us varied skills and abilities that complement one another as we work together towards meeting the needs of our children.  Here's a peek at my husband's handiwork.  :-)

My dear nurse friend has come to help us the past two days.  I should have mentioned that she was the one who cared for Aliyah for 3 weeks while the rest of us were over in China for Joanna Wenyan's adoption.  Thanks to Jacqueline, I have gotten a 4-hour nap two days in a row!  It makes a world of difference!  Perhaps you can tell by the tone of my blog entries.  :-)  

Besides the improvement in pain management, Aliyah's temperature is reducing as is her heart rate.  When sleeping, her heart rate is down to 125, as compared to 130's and 140's.  We'd like to see it below 110.  The incredible amount of inflammation in her bottom area, because it is so near the injured hip, has started to reduce today.  It peaks at 72 hours, but can last for 7-10 days.  The significant inflammation in combination with 2-3 inch long incisions in the creases of her groin, due to the adductor tendons being lengthened, the surgeons instructions to keep the cast clean and dry, AND Aliyah's ability to tank 418mL of urine in her bladder and let it all out in one fell swoop has caused us great difficulty.  It is bringing on levels of creativity in padding, water-proofing, absorbing, skin protection, and diaper-changing technique that Jacqueline and I didn't know we had.  We are considering doing a spica cast tutorial on YouTube to prevent other families from the headache of all this trial and error.  We figure that we should have all this down to a science by the end of this 6 weeks.

Tummy-time on the beanbag with privacy screen as we check her skin, air out her bum, reinforce the tape and padding, and blow dry the wet cotton under the purple cement, as needed.

We love pillows!!!

Prayer Requests:

- that her heart rate and temperature would continue to lower

- that she would not have any blood clots

- that the skin breakdown under her arm would heal

- that she would be able to cough strongly to clear her throat and lungs

- that her ability to swallow would improve

- that those of us who are repositioning her will not injure our backs