A hard day

Tuesday was a nice quiet and restful day which was good preparation for surgery and the long day she had on Wednesday. Yesterday they ended up doing surgery on the pelvis, her ankle and part of her foot. The ankle and top of her foot are done. They just have her toes left to fix. Her pelvis is broken in two places. The Dr. fixed one area and did a CAT SCAN of the other area. The second break was pretty clean and the Dr. said it will heal well on its own, if it IS a good clean break. He wanted to see what the SCAN showed and then would determine if he would need to go in and repair it. We are just waiting for the results of last nights SCAN.

Larisa is pretty much off the medication making her stay sedated. However, she is still on high doses of pain medications, which still make her groggy and sleepy. Her foot caused her a great deal of pain yesterday. There is a lot of nerve damage which is more painful than the break itself. Towards the end of the day, the nurse increased her pain medication to make her more comfortable.

Good news....she is breathing on her own. They may take the ventilator out today but will leave the Trach in longer to make sure that her breathing stays normal and that she can hold he own. She will be able to talk and eat still with the Trach in. She is still on a feeding tube and will be for awhile. They also removed the chest tubes. Chantel was able to see her arm, and could not believe the number of staples - close to a 100 staples, but said it looked really good and was healing well.

A few days ago, Larisa was having a fever, they think it was the result of some drainage in her leg. They have put in a tube attached to a pump into the leg that irrigates it and keeps it clean. The temperature is gone, and the leg looks great.

Now that Larisa is having more time she is awake, she is getting restless. She wants to move, but knows she is limited. With all the soft casts, plastic covers on the bed, she feels like she is in a sauna most of the time. They have a fan running in her room to help. The highlight of her day was when the nurse let her send a text to a friend. Chantel said it made her day.

Larisa is a fighter and has shown that over and over during the past 2 weeks. She is now at the start of a very long road to rehabiliation. There will be many days of discomfort, pain and frustration - days we will wish we could take some of it away. Yet, it will be in the quiet moments when Larisa, her family and her friends will be reminded how very blessed and grateful we are for her life. And that in this situation, when so much could have and should have gone wrong, it didn't. A reminder that One greater than ourselves is in charge. It will be the will to fight and the love of others that will continue to carry her through this amazing challenge.