Day Two - Released to Go Home

Friday, November 12, 2010

Since Mia did great (all things considered) through the previous afternoon and throughout the evening, we were cleared to go home Friday morning, though we didn't end up hitting the road until about 1 in the afternoon.  Tyler, the darling little boy we met our first day there when we were admitted also got to go home.  He'd had a unilateral cleft that was repaired in China prior to his adoption.  An American team had done the repair and it looked absolutely wonderful!  Tyler (18 months) had his palate repaired with the same doctor right after they finished Mia's lip repair surgery.  Being older than Mia, he had a really hard time understanding why he hurt and was such an unhappy little guy.  Unfortunately for his sweet mom and grandmother, along with the nursing staff, Tyler's way of  trying to make sense of everything was to get angry.  Poor little guy ripped out his IV, got out of the arm restraints, refused to eat or drink anything and did not want any of the nurses around him.  Luckily for Mia and Tyler, strolls in the hall seemed to comfort and calm them both down.  Tyler's mom and I spent a lot of time walking the halls together with our sad little ones during the previous evening and night.  Thankfully we all made it through!

Morning of day two, still some swelling - especially in her cheeks - and underneath her eyes are starting to blacken.

Mia cooing with her papa the morning after surgery - our happy little one just couldn't help herself!

IV line got taken out. I thought she would have a hard time with it, but it didn't phase her at all.

Chilling in her bed/stroller. :) Oh, and why I call her "Toots".

Tia Bertha, mama, papa and Mia - ready to head home - yay!

Packed up and ready to head home - and out like a light for the whole three hour trip!

The cool Shriner's symbol on the side of the hospital.

Thank you Shriner's and Shriner's Hospital for Children of Houston for taking such great care of us!

The next time you see a Shriner, would you mind thanking them for us and for all of the children and families they help?  I'll never see the little tasseled cap gentlemen the same way again and have a new found respect for them an the organization they belong to!

The Rose Story


Zeus's mom Lina loved roses, so for her birthday this past May I bought a rose bush for our house in her memory and we named it RosaLina. We still have not transplanted it and it's almost died many times and hasn't bloomed at all since we got it. Well, when we got home, Zeus saw that our rose bush had sprouted a beautiful red rose. We decided it was a beautiful little sign from Zeus's mom that she was watching over Mia during surgery and that everything was going to be okay.

gorgeous red rose on RosaLina

RosaLina, papa and Mia

It was SO good to be back in our own little home!

Mia chilled and napped in her swing...

...and read some stories with papa.

Mia must have recognized that we were back in our own little house because her appetite kicked back in (for the most part) and she's slept 10 hours straight again since we've been home. We continued the pain meds through until bedtime. They had prescribed liquid Lortab for her, which is what she was on in the hospital. We were going to give it to her through the night if she woke up a lot and needed it, but she didn't wake up so we didn't end up giving her any more.  Does this mean we are almost out of the woods on our way to recovery?  We sure hope so!