This is how I coached J this morning: Woog, slow down and breath steady...even if you can't take in a deep breath yet...just BREATHE steady and slow. She panics when she cannot get in a deep breath, then she works her way into hyperventilating and crying altogether.
Ever since she had the deflated lower part of her left lung after surgery, if she goes too long laying, she can easily slip back into the shortness of breath mode.
This weekend she wanted to lay a lot, and sleep a lot. I had to make her sit up, and walk. Usually she is telling me that she wants to get up. I think all of the weeks activities that we did...walking, coloring and sitting up more...took a tole on her. She just wanted to rest a lot this weekend, and had more back pain. Yet, it ends up causing her breathing issues to relapse because I let her sleep through times when she needs to be doing breathing exercises.
I told her today that we have to keep up the breathing exercises...even if that means I have to wake her from a nap. Which I had to do because I know she needs her sleep. We just do not want to risk anything with that weaker lung.
We went for a nice walk outside this morning after breakfast. The temperature outside is much warmer and sunnier than it has been. She enjoyed being outside too. We saw our very sweet neighbor and her two young children. We had a short talk with them. She really encouraged J by telling her how wonderful she looked, and how great she is doing with recovery! This gave Woog a smile.
It will be so nice when it really warms up, and we can all get into the swimming pool. I think she will find it so relaxing in the water.
We are entering week three post-op. J's follow up/post-op appointment with the pediatric scoliosis surgeon is on Feb. 17th. That will be next Tues and the 3.5 mark for her.
OH, I don't know if I mentioned this before. While we were in the hospital, (and when the nurses were watching J's oxygen and breathing), J kept having issues where she was holding her breath a lot. This concerned the ICU Dr. (who is actually over the whole Peds unit) He said she is showing strong signs of sleep apnea. Therefore he put us in contact with the sleep study physician, who set her up to have a sleep study on Feb 27th. That is, if she is able to do this with her spine recovery. If she is still on the pain medications, they may want to wait until she is completely off of them.
I'll keep you posted on this too. :)
David and I are also going to set up sleep studies for ourselves. Ever since I was young, I used to hold my breath in my sleep. I remember being at the beach with my friend Leigh Anne and a few other friends, and she told me they had to shake me to wake me up to breathe, because I was not breathing at times and if freaked them out. (Do you remember that Leigh Anne??) Well, I still do this, and that is not a good thing for my heart. David also does this. Plus he snores terribly and holds his breath. So we are going in for sleep studies. :)
Bubb is the healthy horse of our family. ;) Aside from his ADHD, he is doing well, and he does not snore either. heehee!
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