Little Girl Update

I think I've been through all ranges of human emotions over the last few days.   Gotten a little bit of perspective and a realization just how important one little six year-old human being is to me.

On Sunday, she had some leg pain that progressed to a trip to the ER.

Yesterday morning she had surgery on her hip.  They cleaned the joint in an effort to prevent what has the potential to cause permanent damage, after an ultrasound-guided needle inserted into her joint revealed a possible infection (during the first night in the ER).  When we first arrived in the ER, they did blood work and a regular X-ray, the most traumatizing event of the night, because they had to try to bend her knee and rotate it outward (cringe cringe cringe as I listen helplessly to her scream, since I couldn't be in the room! this made me feel so bad for her!)  All night she was in terrible pain, screaming and gnashing her teeth together, even after they gave her Morphine.  Then she had an ultrasound that showed quite a bit of fluid surrounding her femur.  After they pulled out some of the fluid via the ultrasound + needle, she finally slept sporadically and stopped the periodic screaming she had been doing since late afternoon the day before.  Her leg kept giving her painful spasms, so she wanted my hand on her knee as much as possible that night.

At 4 am the Orthopedic doc said they needed to operate right away due to the nature of the fluid they found in her joint.  He said "this is considered an orthopedic emergency."  Of course we were hoping to avoid surgery, but the alternative-- quick and permanent damage to her joint-- was worse (he said they can't even afford to wait for culture results to get back).

She came out of surgery about 10am.  She kept retching and was still really out of it for a while, I'm sure in part because she had slept so little the night before.  By afternoon she was a groggy sort of awake and got to watch a bunch of movies (it made me laugh that she wanted to watch Cupcake Wars much more than the movie I brought).

Miguel and I have taken turns with her and we've had family here to help (such a godsend!).  The hospital won't let any kids under 14 in to see her because we're in RSV season right now.  That has caused its own little problem.   So I took home some crestfallen tired ones when they were told they couldn't come in to see her, and I found out that later that afternoon one sister had locked herself in my closet.  She was especially affected by her sister's absence and worried and upset that she couldn't see her (see last post!).  I realized that the last time they saw her, she was being hauled away at night, screaming in pain.

Last night Miguel slept in the hospital with her and all the rest of the kids but one opted to sleep in my room or in my bed.  When I had left her the day before, they were concerned that her heart rate was still high (hovering around 150-160, ocassionally going even higher) and tested her to make sure she had no bacteria in her bloodstream.  Right now she is having an MRI to determine whether the infection is gone or whether they have to go back in and clean it out.

Thanks for the kind wishes from many of you.  Keep praying for her, we need it. :)