It Is Brain Surgery - Part 6

The Art of Surgery
Disclaimer: The author of this blog is not responsible for any trauma caused by
the reading of this post or the viewing of any of the photographs herein.

I was flummoxed when the medical powers-that-be told us Jaimie could go home. Not because she wasn't ready - they had already kept her several days longer than was originally anticipated - but it dawned on me that in all the days we'd been there no one had ever changed the dressings on her head. And when I questioned that on her final day, they told us there was no need to change them until a day or two after she got home.

"Really? You can just leave a festering gauze rectangle on a person's cut-open head forever?"

"A few more days isn't going to be a problem."

"But no one has even looked under that bandage since Dr. Brilliant Neurosurgeon stitched her up in the O.R. Isn't that something someone should have done?"

"It's not unusal."

Just to be clear, I'm not a pussy when it comes to blood and guts. I just thought it would be a good idea for a professional to do a dressing change so I could see exactly how it should be done before I put my grubby paws on my little girl's freshly drilled skull. Especially at home, where I'd have no back-up.

So, after some gentle prodding, they sent us a nurse to change her dressing before they gave us all the other discharge dos & don'ts.

Here are the photos I took while the lovely nurse was doing her job. Imagine you are looking at a flip book as you scroll.

By the time I shot picture #6, I was REALLY glad I had a camera in front of my face. No way I wanted Jaimie to see the look of shock on my face. I don't know what I had thought was under that bandage all those days, but I certainly wasn't expecting a trap door secured shut by industrial staples that I could have picked up at my local Home Depot.

She was equally shocked when I finally worked up the nerve to give her a mirror. But it wasn't long before we both came to the conclusion that she was the badass-est of the badasses. The stapled trap door added the final touch to her stylin' new do, which I affectionately dubbed "The Hedge."