It's the Great Pumpkin

Just walking distance up the road from our house is a fun pumpkin patch. The family is really nice and decorates it all cute. The Wednesday before her surgery, we took Angela there to pick out our pumpkins. We met Ron, Marci, and their family there. Angela had fun with her cousins picking out pumpkins and seeing all the fun things. This is pre-surgery so she still had her hair. We have so much fun seeing her expressions while she observes and takes everything in.

With the scarecrow

which one should I get?

click play to see Angela play with the pumpkins.

Coming Home 2

We're home!! This homecoming is little different from the first; this time we actually think she is happy to be here. She is playing and smiling, and eating - but now she is napping (I think her first real nap in 5 days). The doctors are pleased with her progress and how she is looking, and so are we. We got the discharge about 9:20 this morning. We were so excited. But it wasn't fun taking all the sticky tape off Angela; she did not like that no matter how careful they were. It will be tough until she heals, keeping a 16 month old from falling or hitting her head, or being rough - fun huh? We have been extremely blessed this past few days, thank you for all your prayers in her and our behalf. We couldn't have made it through this without you.

Getting ready

(new Cinderella pjs)

At the elevators - going home.

She's baaack

Oh holy cow!!! Angela is back in full swing. It was as immediate as switching on a light. It started yesterday afternoon, she has kept us running. We learned that morphine is a stimulant for her when she is awake. We gave her a full ml of morphine about 9:30 - and she didn't get sleepy, in fact, she woke up even more. So Lorena spent the ENTIRE night chasing her up and down the hallways. Then once she learned she could leave her room, she never wanted to go back in - still. Finally about 12:00 Lorena got her settled, but it was time to take her vital signs, so she awoke and we thought, maybe she is in pain the way she was crying, so we gave her 1/2 ml of morphine - wakey wakey. we spent until 2:20 playing more. How fun is this getting? At 4:00 time for more vital signs and wakey, wakey - this time until 5:20. Then at 7:00 am she woke up for the day and we have been going ever since. Hopefully she will sleep tonight. Needless to say, morphine is out of the routine. Angela had her drain removed today, she cried of course, but is loving life without it, and so are we. The doctor confirmed that we will get our marching orders tomorrow morning.

Walking halls with mom

Just chillin'

Bandages Come off

Today is the day Angela gets her bandages off. Be prepared before you look at the pictures - her head is shaved, and there is a strip over her sutures. We have held her most the day so far. She gets excited when one of us walks into the room. We still can't get her interested in drinking water or juice (she doesn't like juice anyway but there are limited clear liquids) but she got excited when she saw a donut - so we let her have some. She didn't eat a lot, but enough - plus she kept it down. I brought in her own bottle and sippy cup so hopefully that will entice her a little more after she wakes up. She has started to interact with toys and respond to music so her personality is surfacing again - which is good to see. Her head has some bumps but the doctor ways the brain will fill those in as she grows. The plates and screws that are supporting the bone will dissolve after about 1 year. We are quite pleased with the doctors and the care she is getting.

Removing Bandages

Cozy with Dad

Getting settled back into bed

(of course mom's eyes are shut)

Bye Bye ICU

Yeah - today Angela was discharged from the ICU and transferred to the Children's Surgical Unit (CSU). This morning she had her central line removed, and her art line removed. Before all that they were concerned with her lack of output so they removed her catheter. Shortly thereafter, she had a hefty wet diaper that spilled over onto mom. Needless to say, the catheter malfunctioned. Angela has been quite the trooper. She is in and out of sleep. When she is awake we take that opportunity to read her a book or play a song, then after a few minutes, back to sleep - which is ok. She hasn't showed any signs of pain, except her heart rate and blood pressure go up, so based on that we give her some Tylenol with Codine. She is still quite swollen and puffy from the surgery and the doctors say that
will get worse, and could even turn black and blue. She is quite amazing.

ICU

After 6 hours of surgery Angela finally made it to ICU. Everything went smoothly. She was stable the entire time. There was some blood loss and she had to be given some blood, but the doctors say that is normal. Tonight she will be in the ICU where she will be constantly monitored to make sure she stays stable. There are quite a few tubes coming out of her and she is on morphine to help her stay comfortable. She's sportin' a turban to protect her incision When she wakes up she'll get to start with clear liquids, but if she doesn't drink anything tonight that is ok, she just has to be doing good before she can go home, currently planned for Tuesday. Thank you for all your prayers, but please don't stop yet.

Angela's PreOp

At 9:45 this morning we arrived at Pimary Children's Hospital for Angela's surgery (cranial vault). The doctors further explained the process and what will happen. The cut her head in a wide zig-zag fashion so as to minimize the effect on the hair growth. They will put her under using general anthesia, put in a breathing tube, a central line, a catheter, and an 'art' line (straight into an artery in her arm to monitor her blood pressure). The anesthesiologist (Dr. Miller) came and took her about 11:20; we tried the wagon but she was too curious to stay in it, so he carried her; from here it is 5-6 hours!! Angela seemed to be doing ok this morning, especially with no food or water. But she slept until 8:45 and woke up just happy as could be! She had some fun playing before she was taken in for surgery.