Before Raelynn left the hospital, she had a wound vac placed on her spine. This absorbs and disposes of blood drainage, even after she went home. Warning: this video contains graphic images of surgical incisions, dressings, and dry blood. If you’re squeamish about such things, this is not the video for you.
👍🏻 It may feel weird to “like” a video such as this, but it really does help us keep making videos of Raelynn’s life with many disabilities, which helps many parents who are going through similar things.
The wound vac is a pretty fascinating thing! A sponge covers the length of the incision, which absorbs any bleeding or other secretions. The sponge is held in place with huge “stickers” to seal it in place and minimize the possibility of infection. Then the wound vac sucks the wetness from the sponge and pumps it into a container, so that the incision location stays dry and will therefore heal faster.
We were sent home with a disposable wound vac as well. After 7 days, we were told to just throw it away. Interesting!
Visit Raelynn’s website to learn even more! hopeandsunshine.tv
👇 AND PLEASE SUBSCRIBE if you find this content helpful.
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The links below show a few seizures Raelynn has had throughout the years:
▶️ 17 months old: youtu.be/6BEdEB-OJXw
▶️ 18 months old: youtu.be/XhZMx7GHzBk
▶️ 21 months old: youtu.be/WXOeCJKECb8
▶️ 2 years old: youtu.be/om0LVyj74Xs
▶️ Almost 3 years old: youtu.be/pVMUT-pg0zU
▶️ 6 years old: youtu.be/EYNXrQSr9ug
▶️ 8 years old: youtu.be/GcIrDB5qkT0
A few playlists you may find helpful:
⏩ Seizures: youtube.com/watch?v=…
⏩ Tobii Dynavox: youtube.com/watch?v=…
⏩ Assistive Equipment: youtube.com/watch?v=…
⏩ Medical Procedures: youtube.com/playlist…
⏩ Living Life with Disabilities: youtube.com/playlist…
ABOUT RAELYNN’S YOUTUBE CHANNEL
Raelynn has epileptic encephalopathy, global developmental delay, cerebral palsy, cortical vision impairment, and I could go on and on. In fact, I’ll go on a little more. Raelynn is quadriplegic. She has a gastro-jejunal (GJ) tube through which she “eats” all of her food. She has a vagus nerve stimulator (vns), and is currently getting intravenous immunoglobulin (ivig) treatments to hopefully help with her seizures. She regularly wears a shaker vest, uses a nebulizer, and a cough assist machine to help her breath better, especially when she seems extra susceptible to aspirating on her oral secretions.
Raelynn’s been to the doctor more times than the rest of our family combined!
In this whole situation, if we were looking for hope in our circumstances, we honestly wouldn’t find much. Raelynn will probably always be in a wheelchair. She’ll probably always be fed via a food pump. She’ll probably never talk. And she has virtually no chance of getting better.
I can’t tell you how many times people have told me, “God can heal her.” I’ve actually come to find it a little funny when people say that (and I’m a pastor!). I know that God CAN heal her, and I know that God will heal her in eternity, but the point of life is not that we wouldn’t have difficult circumstances.
God is using Raelynn exactly as she is right now. I see how much I’m a better person because of Raelynn. I see the ways God has changed my family, the things He’s taught us, the people He’s put us in connection with, all because of Raelynn’s problems. When I see how much God uses her disabilities, I see that God takes the bad things, the hard things, the hopeless circumstances of our lives and brings beauty, goodness, and hope from them all.
That’s what this channel’s about.
We post videos of Raelynn’s life, seizures, and other disabilities to this channel three days a week (Monday, Wednesday, Friday).
If this sounds like something you could benefit from, please consider subscribing! Your subscription will help us keep making videos of Raelynn’s life and assistive technologies! ❤️
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#surgery #spinesurgery #medicalprocedures