Back to School.. and Back to the Doctor

On Friday, Charlotta went back to school for the morning. Her classroom teacher and other teachers in the school were all happy to see her, as were her classmates.

"You're so much taller."
"Wow, your back is so straight."
"We're so glad to have you back, Charlotta."

She just stood there grinning as the comments swirled about her, while I was close to shedding a few tears of joy.

Throughout this whole experience, we have received so much support from friends, family, co-workers and our community, including the school, and parents and teachers at school. Even parents and teachers at Jack's preschool have heard about Charlotta's situation and have helped us out. We are so touched and appreciative of all the support that's been shown us over the last few weeks. Thank you!

So back to school: Charlotta made it through the morning, doing most of her usual activities, plus a Father's Day craft. All of the action -- in comparison to the last sedentary two weeks of her life -- really tired her out. We picked her up at lunchtime, fed her at home and then she took a two-hour nap.

Earlier this week, we encountered an unforeseen complication of her operation. For about three mornings in a row, Charlotta complained of having a sore upper stomach (just below her sternum) right after getting up. She's not one to complain, but we could see that this really hurt her. It would last for about five minutes as she grimaced in pain and tried to breathe through it. Then it was gone and she was fine for the rest of the day. In my uneducated opinion, I thought that either she had pulled a stomach muscle or that she had an ulcer from all the medication she had been on lately.

On Thursday, I took her to our local GP to get a professional opinion. He was aware of her spine surgery and said that prior to surgery, the organs in her upper body were used to be squished or maybe had not even grown in length because her upper chest was so compacted due to her curved spine. Now, all of a sudden, with her spine straightened out, her esophagus is stretched and when she's asleep that may cause her stomach and the section of the esophagus that joins the stomach to slide up into the chest through an opening called the hiatus. When she wakes up and sits upright, it may slide back down again through the hiatus and that's the pain she is feeling.

He said that her body would adapt and that this was probably just a passing discomfort. Still, he prescribed some anti-acid medication that should make her more comfortable. Last night, we also raised the top end of her bed so that she's sleeping on a slight angle. It seemed to have worked because she didn't complain of a sore stomach this morning.

It does make you think about all the other parts of her body, besides her spine, that have had to adjust since the surgery.