toenail fun!

yesterday went very well, though it did take a lot longer than it was supposed to.

we got there at 2, as specified, and were told we were a little early and to go into the playroom and wait. the children's hospital rules. playrooms everywhere. :) so, 2:30 came and went, and 2:45 came and went. eventually at 3:00, the nurse finally came in to talk to us and get things started. she put EMLA (numbing) cream on 3 possible IV sites, then covered those with clear tape thingies. we did the paperwork, and finally got to go back to the room. after that, things seemed to move along fairly quickly. more talking, and then they gave abby an oral sedative to relax her for the IV placement. it took a little while to take effect, but you could definitely tell when she started feeling it...brian and i couldn't stop laughing. she was swaying back and forth, to and fro, with her mouth hanging open watching arthur on pbs. it was pretty funny, and she seemed to feel pretty good. :) they came in to start the IV, and they had a child life specialist with them to help distract abby from what was going on. between the child life specialist, the numbing cream, and the sedative, she didn't feel a thing. once that was in, she got a little restless, wanting to sit up but not really being able to sit up on her own. so, we had her supported sitting up when she fell asleep. at that point, brian and i left, because we really didn't want to be part of what was happening next, so they gave us a little pager and we walked around for a while. it took about 15-20 minutes, and then she was done. it took her forever to wake up from the sedation, though...longer than most, apparently. it was about a half-hour from the time we got back in there until she woke up. and she woke up CRANKY. and who could really blame her? she had no clue what had just happened, she was groggy, and her toes hurt. so, brian managed to calm her down by carrying her around the hallways for a little while, and then she agreed to drink some juice and eat some teddy grahams. after a little bit longer, they said we could go, and we did.

she's been doing very well since then, and today is back to her normal self. she was taking tylenol with codeine for the pain, but we just switched to regular children's ibuprofen. we took the bandages off today and soaked in warm water/epsom salts, which we're supposed to do every day for 15 minutes. the toes don't look as bad as i thought they might, so that was a nice surprise. the real chore is keeping the bandaids on...between the socks and her being an active girl, even the heavy-duty ones with the super-strong adhesive don't do the trick. so, we're changing them pretty frequently.

so, that's the story of how abby lost 2 toenails.

the end. (?)