Kara has been in her cast for over 8 weeks, and learning to adapt her care has been challenging. She sleeps and spends much of her time in a hospital bed in her room. We have a camera on her so we can listen and watch without disrupting her. Kara has her diaper changed and is repositioned every two hours, even during the night, to prevent pressure ulcers.
A couple weeks ago we fully weaned Kara from her pain medication, which let us take her off her 3 antihistamines too (she had a lot of itching from the oxycodone). At first we were giving her no medication, but Kara would wake up in the middle of night and try to crawl out of bed, so she still gets Valium at bedtime. This has been working wonderfully and she sleeps through the night.
During the day, Kara spends some time in the living room on her Lovesac and can go outside in her reclining wheelchair. We have a ramp now which is helpful.
When we see Kara's physician tomorrow, we hope to get physical therapy orders to begin to restore Kara's range of motion and strength. She will probably be sore and have pain with movement for about two months. Weight bearing is far in the future. If Kara does well during the Summer, she will be able to attend camp and return to school for the new year in the Fall. Also, once the cast is off we will be able to let Kara sleep through the night and lifting her will be a bit easier, as the cast is probably around 15 pounds and the fiberglass material is hard to grip.
Even though life has calmed down and we are in a rhythm, we are ready to be done with this phase. I will post pictures tomorrow.
No comments:
Post a Comment