Pre-op day started at an hour when most people are still asleep, lol, thanks to the lovely weather in eastern Canada. We had hoped to make the 4-hour drive to the IWK hospital in Halifax the day prior to her appt but a snow storm decided to change that plan.
Happy driver 
Sleepy passenger 
We woke at 0430 and were on the road by 5am to make our 1000am appointment. Miss Maddi slept most of the way over, which gave me time to wake up and jam out to my own tunes before she would take over the music selections!! LOL Despite the weather the day before the drive over was super clear and no issues!
We got to the hospital with not a lot of time to spare, finding parking in the parkade proved to be a challenge! Luckily we found a few open spots on the very top level of the parkade. By the time we parked, we had only about 5 mins to make it to our first check-in. Once we were checked in we made our way to the Day Surgery department to meet Maddi’s nurse Kim, who would be with her before the surgery, on surgery day. We answered a ton of typical medical history questions to what seemed like way too many people!! LOL Kim explained what to expect the day we arrived for surgery. We would need to check in for 1000am and her surgery is scheduled for 1230, oh yes …. also, no food or drink after 0400am surgery day, hmm 400am, the lovely hour this preop day started!!LOL, She explained that the surgery should take between 1.5 and 3 hours depending on how things go. While she was in surgery there is a family waiting room for us to hang out in and a nurse would come out every hour to give us updates on how things were going in the surgery room.
Before moving on to the next appts, we met Karen, the nurse who would be caring for Maddi following her surgery, and also the anesthesiologist Frank.
Karen reviewed all the questions Kim had already asked, to which we kind of chuckled, we felt like robots answering the same questions all over again. Karen explained all the “fun” things that would take place in the hours before, during and following her surgery. Needless to say, the talk of the dreaded catheter was none too appealing to Maddi. The needles, IVs, being put to sleep, etc didn’t really concern her but the darn catheter part was something she would rather not discuss. Lol or think about.
The remainder of the day following the surgery will be very uneventful. No food or moving the remainder of surgery day. She will be basically recovering in her bed, with the possibility of raising the head of the bed a bit should she feel up to it. She will have a couple of small incisions in her back, no really huge incisions, and the majority of her recovery will be focused on the muscle soreness and letting that settle down. Keep in mind her muscles have been constantly in a very different position from what they will be in post-op. They will be stretched out of the curved position that they been in for many years now. It was explained that a breathing tube would be placed and removed before while sedated, and the only way she would know it was there was the possibility of a sore throat after surgery. That was not really a highlight for her also, but the catheter is still worse than that though! Karen explained that they will have her pretty strong pain medication following surgery and as well she will have access to controlled amounts of extra pain meds that she can use as needed simply by pressing a button hooked up to iv meds. She explained that these extra meds could not be overused as the machine is set to only release meds every 6 minutes, up to the max dosages for her weight. Used this way, the meds will begin to give relief within 6 mins and if the pain was still too unbearable after the 6 mins she can medicate again at this point. This extra dose of meds may be needed as she starts to move more on day 2.
If she feels up for it on day 2 they will get her up and out of bed. Once she is able to move freely without much pain they will remove the catheter. Day 2 will be a happy day for her I am sure as she can finally try some food! I’m sure she will be happy with jello and popsicles for the first bit. Once she feels up to eating actual food, she can order from a restaurant-style menu. Within 40 mins of ordering her food, it will be delivered to her room. I found this pretty cool and much more appetizing than most other hospital food options I have seen in the past! Time will tell how this food thing goes!! LOL, I don’t recall seeing garlic fingers on the menu and that is her go-to food… So I’m sure we will be visiting the nearest pizza joint for her garlic fingers!
Day 3 she should be feeling a bit more human and hopefully moving around her room, oh right, I did not explain the room tour yet. After surgery, she will be in a private room with a single type bed and a chair, her own washroom, and shower. The plan is for her dad, who is flying in from Ontario, will stay with her at the hospital. My fiancee and I will be nearby at a local hotel. This will be nice for her to have some time with her dad, but I am not sure how I will be at leaving her!! I’m kinda a super protective mamma bear and hate being away from my kids. Lol, and seeing as she the only one left at home with me still, I am pretty pouty about leaving her!
After day 3, it really depends on how her recovery is going as far as what to expect next. They told us 4-5 days in the hospital and then she can go home. Seeing as we live 4 ½ hours away from the hospital we want to be 100% sure that she is feeling good and having no complications before we leave to head home.
Strecthing practice 
Reach 
Lean and stretch
So now it is off to physio and we already have information overload and its been about an hour so far, with much more to come as the day goes on…
Now we’re off to meet with physio….
The physio lady and her student in training were great, and for the life of me, their names have slipped my mind… story of my life! I will call them by name next write up I promise!!! They were super friendly, and you could tell they loved their job, hate to say it, but almost too friendly for a 16-year-old teenage girl who had been up for many hours already by this point! Apparently, the sleep on the drive over was not nearly as good as asleep in her own bed! The physiotherapist explained the exercised she would need to start doing in order to help her back and all upper body muscles be prepared for her surgery. We found out that once the surgery was done and she was recovering at home, these are the exercises that she would be required to do at home and that visits to a physiotherapist would probably not be needed. After all the talking was done we headed to the physio gym and she was able to practice each stretch in the gym. The photos show a few of what she will be doing. I must add, she was not all that thrilled about the pics mom was taking, but she did give the ok to continue being “that” mom :).
Once she felt comfortable with the stretches the physiotherapist told us she would be seeing Maddi the day after her surgery to go over this all again and to make sure all was going well.
Off to x-ray room 
Lovin the blundstone look
Our next stop of the day was the x-ray department for her final x-rays before the surgery. The x-ray tech who met was a jolly fella originally from Texas. He had a great sense of humor and us both laughing as he explained what was next for her. She was going to be stretched out as straight as possible for the x-rays. This would allow the team to know what kind of movement was possible and to help with the surgery. This would also be used in her follow up and research purposes post-op, to help gather more the Apifix surgery and post-op recovery stats.
We had quite a wait for the x-rays as they were down one machine. By this point, it was getting near lunch and we were starving. We did have a lunch break assigned in our day’s activities but because things were running behind we didn’t have time to head down to lobby to eat. We lucked upon a junk food cart in the x-ray dept and dined on Doritos, peanuts, and pop while we waited for x-rays!
Once she was called in for X-rays and finished getting stretched, we headed to the Orthopaedic clinic to meet with Dr. El-Hawray and his team for his final words before the surgery day! He and his team are very supportive and explain everything so well. He told us that all the Apifix team are really confident that she will have great success with this surgery. He did say that her curve is the longest they have worked with so far but reassured us that they were confident all would work out. He and his staff did some measurements of the upper body and of the curve of her spine and we were then on our way to our second last appt of the day, the Pulmonary team to check her breathing!! YAHHH!!! We are exhausted at this point, and still had the 4 ½ hour drive home!!
Apifix team measuring her curve 
Arm length!
In the pulmonary department she went into a little glass booth with 4 walls, and a breathing machine that she had to blow into a million times. Well ok not really a million times but I can tell you that I was getting dizzy and short of breath just watching her. The poor girl had to empty and fill her lungs so many times and it seemed so fast the speed they were having her do it. After about 20 mins inside the box, as she calls it, she was finally done and had they had the results they needed. So now an even more exhausted gal we wander off to find the photo office for the last appt of the day.
Pulmonary Function testing
After making our way to the hospital basement and wondering if we were ever going to find the right spot, we found Greg, the IWK photo guy! It was pretty sketchy down in the basement, his office is down with the laundry and other offices that could be featured in a horror movie!! LOL, ok fine, it wasn’t quite that bad but it was still creepy!
Maddi went and changed into the johnny shirt she needed to be in so she could bare her back for the camera! I got to help at this point and be the shirt holder! He took the 6 pictures needed and we wished him a lovely evening. We were finally free to start our journey home.
Tired, info overloaded and starving, we made our way to join the line up of 4 people to feed the one and only parking meter machine at this exit! It was the spot to be, a line of about 10 more people showed up right behind us! I can’t understand why they only have one money eater for such a large parkade, but oh well, we paid our parking headed to the truck.
We had been craving Taco Bell all day, odd I know, but there is no Taco Bell in the province we live in. We headed to Taco Bell on the way and then had a very quiet drive home, while you guessed it, Maddi slept peacefully while I jammed out to my own music selection.
So, that is the curvy journey so far folks.
We will be back with more once surgery day gets here!! In the meantime, feel free to join our March Break Journey to Edmonton and Banff, posts from that journey will be under the This N that tab.
Fingers crossed she stays healthy and doesn’t pick up any flu bugs on our journey, this would postpone her surgery!
Until next time my friends, be kind to yourself and look out for others.
