Surgery One is Complete

Vanessa's surgery appears to be a success so far. Her tibias are now straight and her bones were strong enough to hold a different pin and plate system then planned so she is in soft casts instead of hard. This is good as she will be able to begin weight bearing sooner. She will require a second surgery to her femurs with the timeline depending on how she does in the next few weeks. She did have a very tough time coming out of surgery as she was in a lot of pain and really confused. The nurses came to bring us back to recovery sooner then typical because she was so upset and crying for us. I believe that she was definitely showing some trauma symptoms, likely related to her experience in the earthquake. I expected all of this, so glad that I was mentally prepared. It is however still emotionally gut wrenching to walk this path with her. I am so glad though, that we are the family to do it. She also very quickly began demanding to see her sister as soon as she was semiconscious, they are definitely inseperable. We could tell that sister was really worried today because she was unusually quiet during pre-op.  So we will be at the hospital for the remainder of the week, please pray that her pain becomes more manageable and that she does not have any complications with her recovery. I am going to do a separate post later on all the care that Vanessa has received at Denver Children's but for now I do want to send out a huge THANK YOU to them. I do believe that we are in excellent hands.