Huge Success!!!!

Reading with Papa after being home from the hospital for only a couple of hours

McKinley's surgery was a huge success!  We are blown away by how amazing she is doing now that she is home.  In fact, she was doing amazing just hours after her surgery.  She came home in less than 24 hours and even the nurses were amazed.  In fact her nurse that discharged us wanted to make sure she had all the "drugs" she needed just in case and she hasn't needed anything.  I gave her Tylenol before bed last night and first thing this morning just because I was sure she needed it, but I really don't think she did.  She is an amazingly tough girl.  She has 5 incisions on her back and every time she cries I ask her what hurts (she's two so naturally, there's lot of random crying) and every time she shows me a tiny scrape on her finger from a fall last week!  I'm thinking...do you even know there are holes and stitches in your back?!?!  I'm just praying that she continues to get even better from here on out.  God is so good and I cannot tell you how thankful I am for all of the friends and family and strangers that were praying for her and us.  It is bringing tears to my eyes right now.  We are so blessed and thankful for all of you!

McKinley's next surgery...

Mommy and McKinley

So it looks like I will start off each blog entry complaining about how long it's been since my last post. But 7 months?!?  Really?!?!  I'm so disappointed in myself!  Where to even begin.  McKinley is walking now! Scratch that, she's running.  Just like her brother.  In fact they are both running and screaching at the top of their lungs as they chase each other around the house cracking each other up. It's really pretty hilarious!  I believe she started walking sometime in April, so it was a bit later than her brother but once she started she acted like she'd been doing it for ever!  She amazes me every day.  They both do.  Their vocabulary is getting so big, every day they have a new word.  When Brooks wants another of something he says "more one".  And when he sees a lot of something he says "many!"  When McKinley wants to ride her bike she says "in a bicycle!" and she loves to sing "twinkle twinkle".  They both can sing their ABC's and count to 10!  I'm sure they'd be accepted into Mensa if we had them tested. :)  (or maybe I'm just a proud mom...)
We have had an amazing summer.  We've visited with family, been on vacations, watched Uncle Ian get married and best of all, spent very little time at the hospital!  McKinley is down to only 1 or 2 clinic visits at Children's per month, compared to about 3 per week when she was first born.  Her last surgery was 11 months ago so we almost know what "normal" life feels like.
Unfortunately she'll be going back to Children's on Wednesday August 22nd for her next surgery.  This is her heart surgery where they will remove her double aortic arch.  I feel more anxious/nervous about this surgery than any of her other surgeries.  I think with all of the others they were just happening so often that I didn't have time to get used to being at home, or having McKinley feeling and doing really great.  This is supposed to be the most minor of all the surgeries she's had with only 1 - 2 nights in the hospital and a speedy recovery but I'm just really dreading it.  McKinley is doing so awesome right now!  She is so happy, healthy, energetic and un-suspecting of what's coming.  I was complaining to Tony about how I didn't want to disrupt this great stage of her life with another surgery and he reminded me that this really is the perfect time to do it. We don't want to wait until she's not feeling well to do a surgery.  But still....
The surgery will be thoroscopic where they'll make 3 tiny incisions under her left arm and hopefully be able to cut the double aortic arch (a form of vascular ring that is not functional so they can just cut it and let it fall down and be absorbed by the body) and that should be it.  There's a chance that they won't be able to reach it thoroscopically and have to go in through the chest but we are desperately praying that won't be the case.  One of the major risks is that the double aortic arch can be near one of the vocal cords so she could have a partially paralyzed voice for a while so we're also praying that doesn't happen. This surgery is not with her normal surgeon (our hero Dr. Healey) which makes me feel a little uneasy but I also know that the surgeon that will be working on her is also amazing and came highly recommended by Dr Healey for this particular type of surgery.
Our prayer is that the surgery is a huge success, that McKinley has as positive of an experience in the hospital as she possibly can, that she comes homes quickly and recovers fast.  In fact we want to go to the zoo on Saturday (wishful thinking maybe?) so I'm hoping she's even healed enough to do that.  Thank you all for being our prayer warriors!  McKinley is truly a miracle baby and I am so thankful that God has chosen to bless us with her and her story.