The news of today's discharge brought smiles to the faces of both KJ and Shawna this morning. It'll be a late night but that's okay. Not that the boys back home have had struggles surviving, shoot, 5 days was a cake walk compared to the 2 week stretches last year, but we're looking forward to getting the girls home (not sure if the girls really want to come back after their girls weekend of siteseeing!!).
Putting on sun tan lotion for bus tour
Independence Square with Independence Hall in the background (a Civics/AP Gov't teachers dream)
To update you all on the medical side of things, Shawna and KJ had to be at CHOP at 6am yesterday morning for pre-op stuff. KJ was on her way back (no pun intended) to surgery around 9am. Dr. Hauer, the doc who has performed on KJ before, was not back in surgery much more than 30 minutes. He informed Shawna that he thought everything looked good and was able to get a good look at her nerves around her spine and for what he saw was very optimistic about we can hopefully shoot for in the future with her ambulatory abilities (don't worry Usain Bolt, she won't be breaking any of your world records!!). That being said, we still will not know on a lot of those issues until she gets older, but c'mon, who cares about her abilities in terms of walking, she's alright got quite the ability to smile and we love that!!
The girls were put in the PACU (Post-anesthesia care unit) which worked out great because KJ got her own room, allowing Shawna to stay overnight with her (plus, apparently a cart comes through that unit a few times throughout the day with WAWA coffee products, free of charge....WAWA coffee became quite a staple in my diet while we were in the Philly area last year). I think Shawna was trying to make me jealous with the WAWA stuff and she sent me a pic of about every meal she had at the Ronald McDonald House as she knows the best part of my days out there were the meals that were served!!
KJ was a bit fussy post surgery (understandably) and struggle for a few hours but with meds calmed down and was able to get some good rest and get the healing process going.
As you can see from the scar, if you've had a chance to see her scar before surgery, this now looks much more cleaned up and small with the work the "really good looking" plastic surgeon, Dr. Taylor, was able to perform (those were the adjectives Shawna used!!). So, now when she's in her teenage years KJ may feel much better about wearing a two piece bikini on the beach....her Dad can't wait!!
Once again, we've been blown away by the support through phone calls, texts, emails, face-to-face conversations, thoughts, and prayers we've received the past few days. Thanks to all for that/those. Another Philly experience always helps us to remember how blessed we are as a family and always brings back some great memories of the journey we've been through over the past 13 months. Can't wait to pick up the girls tonight in GR!!
You know it....CHOOSING JOY
-Jeff
