Back to Normal Life!

This week felt just like before surgery with Allie.  We did walks, library storytime, errands, visits with friends.  She ate everything in sight and spent a lot of her time at home entertaining herself rummaging through the kitchen drawers.  Matt and Joshua have been gone the whole week, but with the help of meals from friends (and the freezer still!), it was totally manageable.  Whew!  We even endured 3 hours on the lacrosse field today.  Hoping for a pleasant trip to a local Disney on Ice tonight.  It is so good to be back to life as usual.  We still have to pick Allie up by the bottom and she can't submerge her incision or fall, but we are well on our way to fully healing, as far as I can tell.  Thankful!

She loves trying on shoes!

Counting laps at school.

"This?" She asks to buy lots of stuff just so she can help me put it in the cart.

Day with Daddy

 

 

 

 

 

Matt and Allie got along just great while Gray and I were away. They got the big kids to school, ran errands, potty trained, and Matt ended up taking her stitches out because our appointment had gotten switched to Monday. Matt said just a few tears. Gray and I got in at 11pm and had a good trip. It's reassuring that Allie made it fine her first day without me, though I sure missed her!!

Cardiology report

I was dreading going back to the dr today, knowing Allie would be a mess after the hospital experience. Sweet girl did not shed one tear!  Even had an echo again and was giggling and talking during it. We got a great report!  Dr Milazzo said she looks great, her heart is doing really well, and the replacement valve the surgeon had to put in is operating just fine. There is a chance she has to have the valve replaced before she's big enough to get her adult replacement one, but it's possible to do that via cath if it comes to that. We go back in 6 weeks and then we can stretch out the time between checks if she looks good still. We are happy!

Up next, Matt takes her to get her stitches out on his own tomorrow while I'm in the Outrr Banks with Gray on a field trip. Maybe it won't be as bad as we thought....

 

At home

Just a quick update. Allie was thrilled to get home and right away started walking around, talking, and playing. No PT worries here!  She wouldn't hardly take a step in the hospital. She had been a little more fearful of me leaving but mostly doing well. We have to follow her everywhere so she doesn't fall, so that is a different lifestyle than before but we are making it. Getting rid of the rain so we can go out more will sure help!

She has follow up with cardiologist Thursday and surgeon Friday. Going to be tough to get messed with again. 

 

We're outta here!

We had to wait around a bit to get blood drawn again (poor sweet girl had lots more tears) but we finally got released and are waiting for meds at CVS on our way home. It's been a long week and with the lack of sleep and just all the emotions, it's kind of a blur. We spent the night in 4 different rooms and had so many different doctors and nurses that I was always confused about who we had met already. Allie ended up in my bed last night because she woke crying and scared and couldn't calm down. Hoping her bed is comforting tonight!  Our big things now are to make sure we don't lift her under the arms and that she doesn't fall, make sure her incision doesn't get infected, keep her moving so the extra fluid leaves her body, and keep her from getting a virus.  Any of that going wrong could land us back at Duke. We have follow ups with surgery and cardiology next week and hope for great reports so we can move on. Thank you all so much for your support. It has been hard, particularly the first days of not knowing what would happen and having to let her go back to surgery, but overall it has been as good an experience as we could ask for and we are thankful!

 

Home soon!

Looking good for release today. Doctors are impressed with how well she is recovering. She is tired and not eating too much...and totally sick of all these people messing with her!  But we think she will feel much better at home.

 

Looking good!

All is well and there is talk of getting a regular room tonight and going home tomorrow, if all is okay through the night and she eats more. Lots of playing and talking this afternoon!