Getting Ready for Christmas

Such a big girl!

School crafts plus putting a million Christmas stickers onto paper – very good OT

Christmas Eve Jammies

Because it’s cute

Teacher gave them these cute glasses.  I just love this series of the two of them!

She is so cute!  Morning toast

Funny girl – after therapy she thinks she gets chips.  Every single time!

So there you have it, she’ll eat crunchy things.  But she’s cute doing it!

School Christmas Party

Sweet girl – everyone loves her!  That last picture – her entire plate was full, and all she would eat was the veggie straws! :)

Visiting Santa!

We visited BassProShop to visit Santa’s Wonderland.  So fun!

Riding a Bike!

Look what Miss Bell got to do in PT!  She is amazing!  I was so proud of her!

Life with Bella

Results from her sedated ECHO were amazing!  Her valves are leaking, we will continue to monitor.  But her pulmonary pressures are NORMAL!  Amazing – that is a miracle!  I am so grateful!

Sweet Bella was sent home on Monday.  She kept crying and they were afraid she was in pain from her surgery.  As soon as I saw her and heard her cry I knew what was wrong – poor thing was constipated!  It’s a chronic problem for Bell, add in anesthesia and you have a recipe for disaster.  I had increased her laxative, but evidently not enough!  As soon as I got her home, we got her cleared out and she was happy as a lark.  I texted this pic to her teacher who couldn’t believe it was the same kid they had just sent home! :)

Signing Time Christmas and a Christmas card from Miss Rachel came for Bella!  So thrilling!

OT eval  She loved the swing!  I loved the circle she drew!  I’ve been trying to convince school that she can produce a circle, she just likes to hide her abilities! Ornery girl!

Playing with Daddy

Bella’s Surgery

This morning Bella had surgery – tubes, hernia repair, and sedated ECHO. 

The ENT said that her left ear was full of thick mucus and that poor ear drum wasn’t able to vibrate at all.  So yea for tubes!  Hopefully this will help with her hearing and speech!  She also said if she sees that thick mucus again (she had it last time as well), she’ll have to use longer lasting tubes.  OK.

Hernia repair was just something that had been on the bottom of my to-do list.  One of those, the next time she’s under and it’s not critical kind of things.  It was from one of her many chest drain tubes.  Done – no more hernia!

And the sedated ECHO just so we could get good readings since she thinks they are trying to kill her whenever they do an ECHO when she’s awake. She fights like a demon!

When we walked into the surgical waiting room we were greeted by two beautiful pictures of Indian Paintbrushes and bluebonnets!  I knew then that was a tender mercy!  Bluebonnets and Indian Paintbrushes in Kentucky?  My Texan pictures made me smile!  Bella was all smiles.  She had no idea where we were!  She smiled as we waited and took lots of selfies to pass the time.

Oh, but once they took us back and she saw all of the equipment, she knew what was coming.  What a sad baby!  The poor anesthesiology team was nervous of her history and insisted she have a breathing treatment before surgery.  That juicy cough that she’ll have all winter wasn’t making them feel any better. I’m just so grateful this is the little girl I was bringing to them.  This healthy, beautiful, behaving little girl.  I knew she would be OK. She is in such a good place right now.

They gave her some versed to settle her a bit before they took her back. Oh Versed!  Baby girl used to have such a high tolerance for you! Like adult doses tolerance.  As the versed took effect, sweet girl faded into versed girl.  Oh, that look on her face and I was right back in the ICU with my six month old baby girl – vacant eyes, mouth open, trying to fight through it all.

But Bella is a trooper and she snapped right back after surgery.  This was her first intubation after decannulation – another reason they were nervous!  She did have some obstruction but they worked through that.  I’ll just remember for the next time she goes under.  Within half an hour she was picking out shows on her ipad and we were ready to go home.

So proud of you, my Bella!  You amaze me every day!