A New Hand

January 9th Bria had her first surgery. This procedure was to separate her fingers on her left hand and clean her toes on the left foot. Our day started at 5:00am. (I'm getting tired of the four hour sleep nights.) We had to be at Shriner's at 6:00 so we got up put on some clothes and wrapped Hyrum and Bria in blankets. Out the door we went for the 40 minute drive. 

We didn't go into surgery until about 9:00 so I don't understand why we had to be there so early. Bria did really good until they put her in the crib. When we walked into the room we saw a metal crib that resembled the ones we saw in the orphanage. In the pictures of different orphanages the cribs tend to be very similar so we assume that Bria had a metal crib. I was concerned about how Bria would react and sure enough she lost it.  I say her eyebrows turn red then her nose.  The tears came next and crying ensued.  I took her out as quick as lightning and we walked out of the room.  The nurse took some measurements and when we came back the crib was gone and her blanket was on another bed.  This was not good enough for her.  I had to sit on the bed and hold her to reassure her that I was not leaving.  All she wanted to do was go home.  She was filled with the fear we would be leaving her. Shriner's was very accommodating and we were allowed to be with her at all times that she was awake.

When the doctor got out of her traffic jam and got to the hospital Bria went into surgery. We waited about and hour and a half and the doctor came out to let us know everything went well.  They took off some lumps and cut the fingers apart.  They found that there was no webbing between two of the fingers so they used the skin from the lumps they removed to graft in a webbing. She showed us some pictures and told us Bria would be bandaged up for two weeks and we wouldn't see it until then.  She warned us that it would look pretty bad but as it heals it would be good.  An hour later they wheeled Bria to the room and she was still totally out.  We ended up being in the hospital until 2:30pm.  We had to convince the nurse to let us go.  I think she liked us because she didn't want us to go. :) We let her know that we had to pick up our son from school in 30 minutes and the next thing we knew we were handed a paper and escorted out the door.  I have never had such an easy time of leaving a hospital before.  In the end we made it just in time to pick Creed up.

Bria has done very well with the pain.  We were able to control it with Ibuprofen and she only needed that for 4 days.  She is now starting to put some weight on her left foot and doesn't say anything about it hurting. She is getting pretty tired of sitting around so she is walking on her knees to get where she wants.  She is a very resilient little girl.

I have debated if I wanted to put pictures of her hands on the blog.  I have been concerned about people response but decided that that does not matter.  This is who Bria is and there is no hiding it.  It is better to have it in the open so people can be free to ask rather than stare and talk in whispered tones. So please ask whatever you would like and we will answer the best we can. Next procedure is this coming Monday. Another day in the hospital.

Before.  There is nothing they can do for her right hand but she is very good at doing most anything she would like with just the finger and thumb.

After surgery while still drugged up.  The doll is a real American Girl Bitty Baby that she got at Shriner's.  I wish there was a way to send a note to the donors of this doll.  For all those that donate to causes keep doing it.  There is much gratitude for the kindness.

After surgery. Sorry we didn't get a picture of the foot before.  From what the doctor said we don't think there will be much of a change.