Post Op - Day 3

Well, ‘Mad Michael’ came and Libby had been given her pain relief about 30 minutes before his arrival, she complained about being transferred into the wheelchair and you could see she was holding back the tears. We went off to the physio room on floor 4 where Michael showed Libby how to help getting to the sitting position and in and out of the chair, the medication had kicked in and she was so spaced out, she didn’t have a clue what was going on. He then moved on to show us how to do the new stretches at which point Libby was out for the count! We carried on regardless and it was wonderful to feel her legs and feet; they were all floppy and there was no stiffness at all, instead of breaking out into a sweat as I normally did, trying to get her leg as stretched as I could, I can now do gentle movements with these lovely legs that are not resisting me. It will take the next 3-4 weeks to get Libby back to the strength that she was prior to the operation but with all the therapy we now have available to us and Libby’s determination, I feel really excited about her future.

It was supposed to be Nanny’s turn to stay the night but after seeing the way Libby needs to be lifted into her chair and toilet etc... It was decided that I was the best person to stay. I popped back to the apartment with Nanny & Ben for a rest and some tea but Ben then decided to pull on the heart strings and cried and cried begging me to stay with him - talk about feeling guilty! I was trying to explain that I realised that he wanted me to stay and as much as I wanted to stay with him, Libby needed me to, how do you explain that to a seven year old and not make them feel that you’re favouring one? Anyway, he settled down and I promised to ring when I got to hospital – I did and was he bothered – NO!

And Dave gets another night out at the Irish Bar.........................