Courtney's Surgery Updates

Sunday, April 25th

Kelsey gave Courtney her surgery hair-do (corn-rows & braids) to keep it out of the way for the surgeons. They watched Mighty Joe Young with my Mom & Dad while she was fixing her hair. Then they went to bed in our room while we finished packing. Jenn and I didn't get in bed till about 1:00 AM.

Monday, April 26th

Early start to the day - We were up at 4:00 AM to start showers. Courtney got up at 5:00 and told Mamaw & Papaw goodbye. We left the house about 5:25 and were checked in by 6:00. We were called back to the holding room about 6:20. We had a parade of doctors, nurses, anethesiologists, come through for the next hour and spoke with the surgeon. They took her about 7:20 to prepare her for surgery. She didn't even need any medicine to help relax her before going. She seems to be handling this a lot easier than we are. :-) They told us it would take about an hour to prepare everything for the surgery and then it would take about 5 hours for the surgery itself. We should get updates every hour and a half. Please keep us in your prayers throughout the morning.

9:25 - Just got the call a few minutes ago that they have made the first incision and they told us that she is doing well.

11:07 - Just got the next call. Everything is going well. They just got the first screw in, limited blood loss, and they are moving along smoothly. We should get another call around 12:30.

12:37 - Just received our next update. Everything still going well. They are putting in some implants and hardware, they gave her a unit of blood (typical for this stage of the surgery), her vital signs are still very good, and they will give us another update between 1:30 & 2:00. Thank you for your continued prayers. I went down and ate lunch and Jennifer is eating now.

2:45 - We got called into a consult room about 30 minutes ago and met with the surgeon. They have finished the surgery and everything went well. We are waiting for them to test the movement of her toes and responses to make sure she is responding properly and then they will move her into Recovery.

3:30 - Courtney is in Recovery and we got to go back and see her. She is sore and her face is swollen, but they are controlling the pain now and she is resting okay. If she does well and can maintain her SATs off of oxygen, we will move to a room on the floor tonight. Keep the prayers coming!!!! :-)

5:30 - We are in a room!!!!!!! Courtney is sleeping and resting well right now. Her pain is under control right now and she seems to be doing very well. They will have to turn her every 2 hours, but she actually tried helping earlier when they turned her and they said that was a good sign. She drank some apple juice (she can have clear liquids the rest of tonight) and was wanting some more. :-)

9:00 - Kelsey left to spend the night with a friend. I am listening to the Predators game on the computer since Vanderbilt's TVs didn't pick up Fox Sports Tennessee. Courtney doesn't want us very far away from her, but doesn't seem to be in much pain while she is lying still. Jenn tried to lay down and get some rest and I stayed beside Courtney and tried to get her to sleep.

11:00 - They started giving Courtney an oral pain medicine and she threw it up a couple of times, so they started giving her something to settle her stomach and for the nausea.