"One, maybe two days in ITU, then seven to ten days back on the ward.."
Those words echoed in my ears for two long, terrifying weeks in ITU, and for the three and a half weeks we spent back on the ward. Number two daughter has had her scoliosis correction operation and is finally back at home.
In the eighteen years since we started to care for her I have never felt so impotent and it really wasn't a good experience. I held her hand and told her I loved her as I watched her slipping under the anaesthetic and I was there every day in ITU when she lay sedated and struggling. Not being able to help her, not being able to look after even her most basic needs, and most distressing of all, not being able to ease her pain, has been terribly upsetting.
There's one area I could help - I've been her voice, I've been able to let people know when she was in pain or simply sad, almost like an interpreter.
As I said before, she's home now and we're both getting used to a new regime, she sleeps a lot, and she can't stay in her wheelchair for more than two hours before she's worn out, but she's so happy and so much straighter, it was all worth it.
The x-rays are astonishing, her spine was so badly distorted that her right ribcage was in her pelvis, and on the left, her spine almost touched her ribs, and now she's so much straighter with two titanium rods down her spine. Feeding her is so much easier, she's able to breathe without struggling and the improvements will continue over the next year, as her body adjusts to its new shape.
