End of May

   May has been pretty eventful for us. Ari's surgery went well to start off the month. She's pretty much back to her normal self. We are still waiting for the Steri-Strips to fall off, but that'll take a little more time. Ari will be moving to a new school in June. This will be the first time she's been away from mommy since she was born. I think Ari will handle it without too much difficulty, but I'm not so sure about mommy :) She'll still have Lily there with her though.
   Saturdays have been busy for us around here. I've been playing on the church softball team. I'm getting my swing back, but still have a few kinks to work out. The team has been doing generally well and we have a winning record for the season so far. I only have a few weekends left of that before the end of the season.
   Lily is just about walking at this point. She crawls really fast and seems content to do that for now. She does stand up and move around holding the furniture, but doesn't seem interested in taking any steps away from where she can hold.  Other than that, its just been ear infections and teething.
   We're hoping to get away for a week this summer. As long as everyone stays healthy we'll actually be going on vacation. Ari's been doing well on long car rides so I'm hopeful that we won't have to make too many stops along the way, but we're only planning on traveling short distances each day (as least relatively short. No 8 hour driving days). We'll have plenty of pictures to share when we get back.

Three days since surgery

This surgery has gone better than we could have ever hoped. By Friday, Ari was up and moving on her own. She's been active since yesterday morning. She's out playing with her water table right now. She seems to be in less pain than she was before the surgery. We've taken a few car rides and went to the mall. We didn't have any hopes of doing anything but stay home this weekend, but she want to be out which is great. I have a church softball game tonight and she wants to go to that as well, so it'll be back in the car in a couple hours. Hopefully all of this keeps up. I can't remember the last time she's been in such a good mood.

Meeting Elmo and heading home

We had a couple of nice surprises before we went home. First, we had a couple of clowns visit. They same and blew bubbles and cheered Ari up quite a bit. Lily liked the bubbles. After that Elmo (along with Kevin Clash, the official puppeteer for Elmo) came in for a visit. That was a real treat. Ari was shy but she enjoyed it.
After Elmo left, we got ready to go. She'd eaten a pancake and half a donut plus a cup if apple juice. The doctors were happy with her progress so they changed her dressings and took out her IVs. We got her changed and put her in the car with mom-mom and mommy. I went to get our can while they left for home. We're now all home and Ari is resting and watching Disney Jr. (Jake and the Neverland Pirates just went off).

Up and moving

Ari's doing well this morning. She had a pancake and part of a donut. She did throw up last night, but that was after she had pain medicine. We're not sure if it is related but they've cut down on how much they are giving her just in case. She's still doing well pain wise even with the lower amount of meds.
The nurses just came in and got her to walk over to a chair and sit down. That went as well as I would expect. She was scared to walk, but made it without much of a problem. She now sitting in the chair playing her Mobigo. It still looks good for us to go home today as long as she drinks some more and keeps her food down.

In a room

We went right into a room and skipped the PICU. She's awake now and needed some extra meds, but they don't have her hooked up to anything too strong.  They're hoping she won't need it since the surgery went so well. If all goes well, we'll be home tomorrow afternoon.

In recovery

The surgery just finished and she's been moved to recovery. It sounds like we're skipping the PICU and heading straight to a room. We'll find out soon enough. She's still asleep at this point.

Started

Just got an update that her surgery has started. I took her back and waited until she was asleep.  We'll get an update every hour. The surgery is scheduled to last until noon.

Pre-op

We're back in the Pre-op area now. The new building is really nice and there's a lot if space. The waiting area used to be quite cramped, but now its much better. They're still getting used to the new building here so things are running behind. We still need to go back and finish up the paperwork after she goes back since they weren't ready with it before we came over to Pre-op.
Dr Ain just stopped by so were moving along. She's already been put into her gown and her back has been marked (they always mark up the surgery site) and we were just given a gift for being among the first patients in the new building (it opened on Monday).
The anesthesiologist just left. So were just waiting on the room to be ready. I'm gonna take her back, so I'll need to get ready in a minute. I'll let everyone know once the surgery starts.

Next surgery - 5/2/2012

Ari's surgery is tomorrow (5/2) starting around 7:30. We have to get to the parking garage by 5:30 to make sure were there for the 6am check in. That means leaving the house no later than 5 and getting up before 4. All that will be easy compared to the part starting from when I see her go to sleep with the mask on through when the doctor comes out to talk to us. Hopefully this will be a quick one. The original surgery was close to 8 hours. This one should be 1-2. Everyone keep my tough little girl in their prayers. Only 15-20 more surgeries to go after this one.