...and this little piggy went to surgery....

I'm waiting for Rima to get out of surgery. She went in about an hour ago. They're doing sinus surgery on her, fixing her slightly deviated septum and putting in a new G-Tube (feeding tube). The G-Tube part can usually be done by Rima, but this time it would not come out and she did not want to pull out her stomach. So we decided to let the professionals take a stab at it. The deviated septum part is not a code word for a nose job for Rima, as I thought. I guess everyone has a slight deviation and they thought it would be beneficial to fix it. They said it could help her breathe better, This is NOT the big surgery that's going to inevitably come and soon. I came last night and spent the night on a pretty stiff window "bed". I'm staying till Saturday night. Yep, I've moved into Rima's hospital room for a few days! She was pretty happy/excited about it. Someone to harass 24/7! Oh the joy of being related to that little monster!

**Watching clips from the Tonight Show - Lip Sync Battle - AMAZING stuff to binge watch**

The last couple days have had their ups and downs with how Rima has been feeling. The antibiotics she is on do have some not so fun side effects. In short her whole body hurts especially her joints. One of the antibiotics she's given makes her CF arthritis flare up pretty bad. She also feels like "poop" from them. All in all it's not a fun theme park for her.. She did some more PFT's hoping her numbers would go up from 20% on Monday . It went up to 21% on Wednesday when she did them again, not a big increase at all! Poop on a stick!!! This is no good, no good at all! We were so hopeful that she would be at 25% and would be able to qualify for this new study! It just goes to show us that even if she feels good and does her meds and therapies, CF has other plans. It sucks because she has been trying so hard to get up from 24% to 25%, and now she's at 21%. Her doctor wants her to do follow up PFT's in about 2-3 weeks and hopefully her numbers will go up again?!?

**What her sinuses look like. The black part is where airflow is. You can see the left side is pretty congested.**

Yesterday I cooked a bunch of food for her, since my cooking is miles better than any hospital food. I for sure don't have to say "if I say so myself", it's a fact. Dennis spent the day with her yesterday, I'm pretty sure they binged watched Nurse Jackie a majority of the day. This morning Rima had to wake up at 6am to get some nebs in and a little of chest therapy before the surgery. She also could not do a night feed since she was not allowed to eat or drink after 12pm. By 7am after trying to ignore all the hubbub and my discomfort I rose from the window "bed". Rima, fully awake was ready to jump into conversation with me. She asked me if I wanted to come down with her to the Pre-Op room to hang out before she goes into the surgery room. After a couple of minutes of waking up of course I said yes! What was I going to do try to sleep again.....psshhhh....no.

One of the transport attendants came by to bring her down to the surgery floor. Rima asked if I would french braid her hair. Since she did not want it to turn into a "snarly charley" during and after the surgery. She wanted it parted on her side part, not down the middle like any sane, rational person. It looked like a child did it. I'm not proud of my work, I do not stand by it in this case and this case only. We got down to the Pre-Op room, more nurses and attendants came by asking questions and preparing her for surgery. Everyone was super nice and friendly. It definitely helped me feel more at ease. I know Rima is use to this, but I'm totally out of my element. I've been in hospitals more times than I can could (well not like Rima) but I've never been this person for her. I was away at school or living in one of the many cities away from her when she has gone through things like this. I've jumped in the deep end here and I'm trying to become an olympic swimmer overnight. My back stoke kinda sucks right now, especially with remembering medical terms and her medicine names. Practice makes perfect.

**She asked for it.....side part my butt!**

**She spreads smiles everywhere she goes....**

**The things on her legs are like compression socks so she does not get a blood clot while being under**

They talked us through the procedure and the anesthesia. They had Rima put on a silver "shower" cap. They then pumped some meds into her to make her a little loopy. I think something close to anti-anxiety meds/relaxant meds. Apparently they needed to give her quite a bit, she's not a lightweight when it comes to drugs! As she was pulled away from me we touched fingers like ET "phone home noodle, phone home". The nurses got a kick out of this interaction. They said the surgery could take between two - three hours depending. So, I went back to her room and tried to go back to sleep. Nope not happening. So I changed got ready and came down to the waiting room. I found a nice armchair in a nook and took perch. About 2.5 hours after we did the ET fingers a nurse had me go into a private waiting room so I could get the download from her doctor on how the surgery went. An hour later they told me the surgeon had to go into another surgery so they will just call me with the update but Rima was done and did very well. I went back to her room and waited for her to get back. They rolled her back in about 20 minutes later. She was awake but a bit out of it still. Her eyes were shut, they taped them for the surgery. It took her about an hour to open them just a crack. She took some pain meds, I spoon fed them to her with apple sauce. People were coming in and out and asking her question after question. Finally after 30 minutes we were alone. Rima turned her face to me eyes still shut, holding tissues to her bleeding nose and an oxygen mask in the other hand. "Is everyone out now?" I told her yes "Good, keep them out." Haha I'm glad her sense of humor was not affected.