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Cassidy's Story
CHAPTER EIGHT
Third Recovery
A few days after her surgery, Cassidy wheeled herself into the physio room in the RCH and with help of two wonderful therapists, managed to get out of her chair and onto the mat at the end of the parallel bars. She pulled herself up and kept her weight on her right leg while the bars were adjusted to her height. With a lot of encouragement from all in the room and captured by Dad's ever-present video recorder, Cassy gingerly put her weight on the toes of her left foot and limped onto and off it. She soon realised that it would support her weight and did several laps of the bars, answering "No, not yet!" when the physiotherapists asked her if she wanted a break.
She made several visits down to physio but this didn't seem to help with her 'cabin fever' -she hated being inside and would only truly relax when poor old Mum took her in her wheelchair for long long walks in the neighbouring park. Pushing that wheelchair with such a big girl in it was tiring and I had caught the flu from a man who sneezed in the elevator. I was so sick and that night for the first time since her admittance, I slept away from Cassy, in the parent accommodation in the hospital. All the other nights I had slept in a fold down bed right next to Cassy. It may seem like I spoiled her, but I believed she needed me. Dad (who stayed nearby) was there as soon as he could get himself and Lachlan dressed and fed and stayed until after the evening meal.
With Christmas day looming, the doctor had one last look at Cassidy and declared she was ready to be discharged. It was Christmas eve and we actually had planned to be in the hospital for Christmas day and hence, really had nowhere to go! We decided that David should take the kids to his parents' house nearby so that if anything went wrong, they could return easily to the hospital. Cassy was not yet up to the 5 hour trip home. I spent my first Christmas day ever without my children and hated it!
About a week later we travelled home in convoy -one car loaded with the humans and the other car loaded with the equipment. Before the surgery, I had renovated my bathroom to accommodate a wheelchair and had installed ramps, so we had decided that Cassy would be better off there to begin with.
Generally she coped very well and only rated her pain at about 2 out of 10. She frequently declined pain relief but had a problem with withdrawal from the Valium they had given her for spasms (or maybe it was the Morphine, I'm not sure). Every 4 hours she would get the 'blahs', as we dubbed it. She would just cry and sob and generally be totally despondent and nothing helped. We decided to just go with it and sympathise with her instead of trying to fight it. I would say "Oh Cassidy, you've got the blahs again haven't you?", and she would agree with me and sob and blubber away. We explained why and also that it would get less and less frequent and eventually disappear completely, which it did over a period of about a month.
Recovery from surgery is not the time to enforce regular discipline...the child is not in control of themselves and just needs understanding and love.
To begin with Cassy used the commode for toileting but it wasn't long before she ditched that in favour of walking to the toilet using her walking frame and lowering herself carefully on to the toilet. We put a plastic chair in the shower and she sat on that, showered privately and revelled in her reclaimed dignity!
We returned in a couple of weeks to the RCH for a check and the surgeon gaped at Cassy, still in her wheelchair and said "You're just being lazy, get out of that wheelchair!" All in good humour of course, but he meant it and stated that, when she returned in a few weeks time, she had better walk in to his office. Which she did (with her crutches nearby).
The school year of 2004 started and Cassy, surrounded by fussing friends, walked into the school with only a walking stick. We left the crutches in the principal's office, just in case she needed them. Her friends actually offered her money to have a go on them! Physical education was out of the question, but nevertheless, somehow Cassy was enrolled in it. We solved this dilemma by having Cassy do her pyhsiotherapy exercises during that lesson. Once her wounds healed hydrotherapy started again and she embarked on the familiar journey of rehabilitation.
