This time last week, Marissa was still sedated from her spinal cord surgery. Today, she is walking around, crawling at times, but overall doing well. The doctors had told us that she would still have to be laying still and would not be able to move like she did pre-surgery. This is nothing short of a miracle. I thank God every day she stands on her own two feet.
Marissa's hospital stay was eventful to say the least. The first night we were able to room with a friend of mine from work whose son was also in the hospital. Marissa slept most of this night, waking occasionally, but refusing to eat or drink. This meant that the pain meds that Dr. Jane Jr. had ordered for her, she was not taking. Just a wonderful Tylenol suppository. On Friday night, Marissa was in a lot of pain. The Valium made her a little loopy and she would giggle and then have major back spasms. She was running a fever. They finally had to give her some pain meds through her IV that knocked her out and reduced her fever. Nothing like having a hand slap you acrossed the face at 1am, trying to talk to you. Saturday is when Marissa's autism decided to play a role in her hospital stay. Marissa was lets say wired. With some sweet tea, chocolate milk, allbuteral treatments, and Valium- she was up and ready to go. Not to mention the 9 month old baby we bunked with that just had cleft-palate surgery, who cried non-stop. Marissa went well crazy. Finally, they gave her Adavane at 11:30pm, which never came into effect until 1:15am. In the meantime, she is asking me the same questions, over and over and over again. On Sunday, I begged the doctors to send us home. Dr. Jane Jr gave his blessing and Steve and I were packed and ready to go in five minutes. Sooooooo happy to be home.
Tomorrow, Marissa gets her stitches out so back up to UVA we go. Grateful that she is defying the odds and is healing so quickly. Dr. Jane Jr. called her "courageous, amazing and remarkable". I would agree with him, not because she is my daughter, but knowing that most children and adults would not respond as well as she did to this serious surgery. She makes it hard to complain about anything, but she is simply one of the strongest people I know. While we are facing our challenges now, her level of frustration is high, and hoping that the surgery will improve her kidneys and her gait, I know that God is truly watching out for her. He proves it time and time again.
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