Post Op checkup

Mia has been doing pretty well over the past week. Her eating & drinking seems unaffected with the laser treatment they performed on her mouth. Mia's forehead and eyes got very swollen, more so her eyes. Her right eye was practically swollen shut. Everything was going well until Saturday night. She has this big frog stuffed animal that when you squeeze or smush his stomach, it makes a noise. Well, Mia was laying on her belly and rocking on the frog when she didn't stop herself going forward and smacked her head right onto the hardwood floor. OUCH!!! Brandy and I got her pain medicine and an ice pack as fast as we could move. It took alittle bit to settle her down but by the next morning Mia was back in good spirits. Her forehead however was huge, puffed up and bruised. Since then, she has slowed down alittle and only alittle.

We saw the Dr yesterday for her post-op checkup. We talked about the surgery alittle and he felt he got around 50% removed from her forehead. Only time will tell us for sure. The good news is that he said everything is looking great and she has no restrictions now. The incision is healing very well. Mia's forehead will still be swollen for a few more months but that is normal. Because of how it is growing, it made things very difficult to operate on. We just need to make sure she doesn't bump her head. The timing is perfect, Mia is going to her cousin Emma's birthday party this weekend and its a pool party. She is so excited because now she can go swimming.

She's home

Its quite amazing to watch how fast children bounce back. In less than 24 hours of Mia coming out of surgery, we were in the car coming home. It was a rough night after her surgery, Mia was not able to keep anything down water or juice. We were pretty nervous about how she was going to recover. Tuesday morning, her hat fell off from all her movement that night so the doctor came up and re wrapped it. Mia no long has a hat, but now a bandanna and she looks like Bret Michaels. After taking some pain medicine, she was able to keep some Jello down. She was excited about that because she had that pancake on her mind. Once again, she's feeding herself and drinking some juice.

After a brief nap, Mia wanted to get out of her room and take a walk. As we walked by the playroom, there were a lot of other kids who were at the hospital, all playing bingo. There were some players from the Milwaukee Wave, an professional indoor soccer team, helping the kids out. Whenever someone got a bingo, there was a pool table full of books, stuffed animals, board games, lunch boxes, dolls... big gifts not little ones. Each child had won at least 2-3 things while we were there. It was so nice and Mia was very excited the things that she picked. She got a cheerleader doll that cheers, a set of board games and a Wave lunch box stuff with souvenirs from the soccer team. The doctor came up again to check on Mia. He said that the swelling looked ok and whenever we were ready to go home, we could. Once Mia heard that, she was ready to get the IV out and come home.

She did really good once we got home. She layed on the couch and relaxed, played with her games and then fell asleep. It was the middle of the night that she woke up and had a high fever. We called the hospital and they wanted us to try to get her fever down, otherwise we would have to go back. Thankfully Mia's fever did go down and she is still home. The doctors nurse heard that we called during the night so she called this morning to check up with us. There was one little area near the incision so we are just waiting to hear back from them if we should put the bandages back on or if we need to go back to the hospital. So far, after a little bit of pain medication, Mia is doing ok.

I'll try to post some pic's tonite or tomorrow.

Recovery - part 2

After a few hours of sleeping, our little princess woke up. Mia was crying that it hurt and she wanted it off, referring to her new "hat". We were trying to get her to roll over onto her left side so her right side wouldn't swell up but Mia didn't want anything to do with that. Alittle bit later she had to go to the bathroom so I carried her there as Brandy brought along her IV trolley. Once we got back to our room, Mia was ok with laying on her left side. It didn't take long when Mia was asking for some food. We gave her the options of juice, Popsicle or some jello because she could eat some soft food. That led to "how 'bout a pancake, cause they're soft daddy?" Well, we are not pancake stage yet so she opted for a blue popsicle. Now Mia and Brandy are lying down together. So far, things are going pretty well for everything Mia has gone thru today. We should get to talk to the doctor tomorrow so we'll have some more information about how she's progressing and when we might be able to bring Mia home.

Recovery

We just talked to the Dr and Mia is now in recovery. It was a long and intense surgery. He said he was able to get some of the cyst's drained. Because of the extensiveness of the vessels in her forehead, it was difficult to work around. They Good news is that Mia should have feeling & movement of her forehead. Also they did not put in a drain because he felt they didn't need it plus it would a lot for a 4 year old to deal with taking it out and then redressing her forehead. The Dr also used stitches that he used will be absorbed vs. using staples or something that would need to be removed. As far as we've been told, the has a bandage on her head that should keep pressure on her incision and help heal. We are anxiously waiting to she her. I'll post again later tonite with more details and hopefully a picture.

Surgery in progress

Mia is currently in surgery right now. She has been in there for about 1 hour at this point and we have at least another hour to an hour and a half. Mia started crying as we left her. It about broke my heart, all she wanted was for me to lay on the bed with her.... Once again, we wait.

Waiting...

The time is here and we are in the waiting area for them to call us back and start getting her ready for surgery. Mia is having so much fun right now playing in the big doll house, with all the toys and coloring. Last night she was in such a great mood, silly goofy. We went to Applebee's for dinner where Mia had... mac 'n 'cheese. Afterwards we went back to our hotel and swam for a little while. She is in such a great mood which is great and so strong. The Dr is running alittle bit behind right now so we have to wait alittle longer. I guess that is all part of going thru this.... waiting, waiting and more waiting. Sometimes with answers others with more questions....

Surgery Info

We got the call today about Mia's surgery schedule for Monday. We need to be at the hospital at 10am and surgery should start around 11:30. Once Mia comes out of recovery, they are estimating that we will need to be there for 2 nites. If all goes well, Mia should be able to come home Wednesday sometime. Thanks again for everyones support and prayers. It is a tremendous comfort to know that so many people are there for our family.



I'll keep posting updates throughout our stay. God bless.