Zoey's Good News: Day 34

From Stephanie, Zoey's mom.

Zoey has had a big day today. She came out of traction this morning. We gradually lowered her legs over about 15 minutes to help them to adjust and minimize any discomfort. Then I soaked them in wet towels to loosen the adhesive and pulled off the tape from the traction. Her legs are peeling and very raw in large areas on her calves as to be expected. She was quite content to lie flat in her bed the rest of the morning so I didn't push her.

After her nap I picked her up and she enjoyed that. I did notice that she couldn't hold her head up initially, but her neck muscles quickly adjusted so that wasn't a problem after about half an hour or so. Next thing was sitting up which also was difficult for her to do - she was very wobbly and would fall to the side whenever she tried shifting her weight/trying to reach anything. It has now been 4 hours and I definitely see improvements in this area -- she is not completely stable but fairly good at staying upright without falling over so that is great. She is nowhere ready to walk yet -- we tried a few steps but she has lost muscle in her legs and she just flops around as she cannot put any weight on her legs yet. I know this will come too, but expect it could take a bit of time for that strength to come back. This is a bit frustrating for Zoey, but she is a determined girl so that will help her along.

The incision seems to be holding so far in her bladder area - perhaps a bit stretched from what I recall, but not dramatically different. She still has 1 catheter left which the chief urologist tried to remove yesterday by pulling hard on, but without success as it seems stuck in there for now. They'll try pulling to try to remove it again either tomorrow or Thursday. I am expecting we might see occupational therapy tomorrow to try to help regain some of her skills. She is on no restrictions for any activity. The chief orthopedic surgeon came by today and said the x-ray from yesterday shows there is excellent bone growth on her hips.

So all goes well so far. We are hoping to go home Thursday. I'll send more pictures once we get home as I cannot download them from here.

Love, Stephanie

Thanks for reading!