November 13, 2012

About 10:00 am

Alayne went into surgery this morning. She was full of spirit and ready to get her back nice and straight after so many years of pain and discomfort. The surgery was slated to take around 4 hours. It took about 1 hour to prepare her with medications and taking her under. Then the full spinal fusion was to take place.

11:30 am

Alayne is about 30 minutes into the actual spinal fusion and she is doing great! Her vitals are well and everything is progressing in a good direction. I love that they have a nurse call about every hour to keep us connected. It is very relieving to have that…

1:13 pm

The nurse called and let us know that she is doing well still and they have just begun placing the rods into her back and starting to straighten her spine. She said that it would be about 1 hour or so before they were complete.

2:07 pm

The nurse called and said that Alayne was just being stitched up. (That so sounds like a zipper on a jacket) They said it would not take much longer before she would be finished

2:45 pm

Dr. Klatt came to see us in the waiting room. Alayne is now finished with the surgery and in post op. He is a very good doctor… both with connecting in a great personality and excellent in surgery. He said that Alayne had a pretty low heart rate during the whole procedure. He asked if that was normal and I said it may have to do with all of her exercise in dance. He said that it seemed like Alayne was so calm during the surgery that she didn’t even care that he was working on her back. 🙂 She lost only 400 CC’s of blood and he said that normally his patients lose between 500-700 CC’s. He was very impressed with this. He also said that everything couldn’t have gone more perfect. He was so happy with the outcome and I felt assured that both Alayne and I would feel the same way. Of course, after she gets through the tough healing days… He said that she would be awake in about 30 minutes and we could go see her.

Due to my flight schedule, he ended up taking me right into see her so I had the opportunity to be with her before I had to go. I was so glad to see her!

2:50 pm

I walked into the room to see my beautiful wife as she was coming out of anesthesia. She was away with her eyes closed… I’m not to sure that she will remember this… She was talking with the nurse about how she felt. I walked up and said hello. She knew it was me immediately and reached out to grasp my hand. Her eyes opened wide up and the first thing she said was  “I did it!” in a very cute children’s voice. She then said she loved me and she informed me that she would be a good girl and do what the nurses asked. She was all smiles coming out. I almost started crying with joy to see that she was well. I had the opportunity to be with my wife for about 10 minutes and then I had to go to the airport.

This was the toughest thing I have done in my lifetime to this point. When I had to go, my eyes filled with water and one of the nurses said to me (may I remind you we were in a Children’s Hospital), “It will be ok dad, your little one will do just fine.” It was kind of unexpected as it was my wife having surgery and I couldn’t help but smile for a moment.

About an hour after I left, Alayne’s sisters Alisha and Andrea were with her. She was doing ok but began having muscle spasms. It sounds like it was pretty painful but she smiled through the whole thing. Of course, they drugged her up pretty good and she is sleeping at this point. They have also moved her to a new home for her for the next 5 nights.

I sure hope we can all make her feel safe and comfortable. I cannot express my gratitude for those that have been so willing to help and spend time with her. I will be forever in your debt as it is so difficult for me not to be there.

May Alayne continue to be strong and full of faith through the next few days. I will update and news comes in.

With love, Enoch

 

Hello everyone this is Alayne,

Well like I mentioned earlier I was up earlier then expected wrote you all the short version of my life story.. we were packed by 7:15 am and right before I had to leave I wanted to snag shot of my my measurements. Before and After…..

 

Driving up to SLC it was so surreal for both Enoch and I this was something that we both knew that  could change our lives forever. The fact that is this has been a dark cloud following me my whole life and with in just a few hours it was going to be gone.

We checked in right at 8:30 am and ready as ever we could be for this big change in my life. We met with the nurse who gave my IV and not soon after Dr Joshua Klatt came in to greet my twin sister Alisha, Enoch and I (secretly Enoch and I wrote a note on my back after putting my hospital gown).

Heee Heee Heee… We were having way to much fun!!! 🙂

The anesthesiologist then escorted Alisha, Enoch and I down to the procedure room and as we were walking down the hall I untied my gown from the the back just so Alisha could get a peek at our art work. 😉 Alisha couldn’t stop laughing (secretly knowing that my twin sister was more nervous than I was. It was so nice to distract her from that worry for just that moment.) The hall came to an end and it was time for my good byes. I love you and hugs and kisses were exchanged. I love you and will see you soon were the last things I said to them before watching the the doors close behind.

I was walked into a cold room were music was playing. Everyone in there apparently knew that I was a dancer wanted me to bust a few moves. So I did my best, 😉 great way to go under. 🙂 K you will be given something that will make you feel dizzy and now something that will make you sleep, then I was out……. 4 1/2 hours later…..

Coming out of anesthesia, I couldn’t make out any one faces but only recognize voices in the room. Knowing that the one and only truly one wanted I to see was Enoch. He was the first since he was having to leave town for a business trip. I lit up and all I wanted was him by my side forever. I don’t ever remember letting go of him till I realized he had a flight to catch. Moments later love and dear ones surrounded me holding my hand, rubbing my shoulder or gripping my feet. I recognized each voice telling me that it is all going to be ok and you will get through this. I didn’t want to let go of my family bonds that was in that room at the the time. This was what was comforting me from the excruciating pain I was feeling.

Soon I was transferred into my room where I was going to be staying for a week. Sounds like a blast right!!! Not too bad though I was missing my hubby he had to leave town for business matters. I lucked out and said to him I’m going to be in the Children’s Hospital. It’s like Santa’s work shop and everyone is super happy and nice. I was going to be in good care. Plus on the up side, I won’t remember a thing, I hope, after this. 😉 I DID IT!!!

Love you all, Alayne

PS. Thanks to technology, Enoch and I were able to chat once he was settled in his hotel room in Cleveland, Ohio. We had a face to face chat on our phones. It was so comforting for the both of us to see each other. Here are the pics my sweet sister took that night while us two love birds chatted. 🙂

 

Good night I love you.