The surgery update....the long version :)

Well I am gonna start with the surgeon post op consult and work our way forward.  So after almost 6 hours of surgery - Mallie came thru very well.  The surgeon said she did great!  Her left ear was done first and he says the first ear always takes longer.  They do some testing on the ears with the divice hooked up that can give indication of how good they will work.  Its preliminary and not 100 accurate so only time is going to tell us how Mallie will do with them.  But this is what he said - she responded on both ears - but it was not normal.  Ha!!!  Whats normal anyways and this is our little Mallie.  She always likes to keep us guessing!!  He said based of the initial testing that possibly she might not be able to detect lower pitches.  But also saying that if there was an air bubble or something in there it can effect the testing and all that can change when get them activated.  So the fact that she was responding to the testing is AWESOME!!!  The surgeon was very pleased and also encouraged with the results.  Steve asked him how her haircut was and Dr Daniels said.  "Symetrical".  with a smirk.  The poor girl - I can only imagine how her hair looks.  Guessing she has a rocked out version of an 80's mullet since she kinda had that going in the first place.  Now she will have shaved sides to boot.  We got to go back to see her around 7pm in recovery. She has a bandage on that looks alot like an old style football helmit.  Its gauze underneith and the outside is a thick foam tape.  She is really puffy from the IV fluids so she looks pitafull.  Still cute as hell..... They said she came to really quickly from such a long surgery.  She was still pretty out of it and they were working on getting us a room upstairs - so the recovery nurse convinced us to go get dinner.  When we got back Mallie was more awake and it was time to head upstairs.  Worked out good.  The new hospital is really nice.  Everything is really clean and kid friendly.  It was nice to be in the waiting area and not have a million people hanging around.  Everyone there had kids in procedures and there was never more than 15 people waiting at a time.  The TV's in all the rooms - have movies on demand - which is nice.  All kinds of movies too - not just little kids :)  So we went up to the 9th floor to get settled in and our room was HUGE.  It has huge windows the length of the rooms that at night shades can be drawn down electronically.   MAkes the rooms really bright during the day!  Our room had a couch that pulled out to a double bed plus a comfy recliner.  The cribs are much nicer too - they don't look like jail cells but more like cribs.  Of course everything is bright and new so - I have to say it was great to be in the hospital.  The first night Mallie did really good - she was pretty sedated but cranky at times.  We were able to start feeding her some apple juice mixed with water once we got up there and she kept that down.  So at 11 she ate a two ounce bottle of her formula.  I fed her a couple times during the night too and  she was doing fine with that.  around 6 am she woke up really crying - she seemed uncomfortable - so we decided to give her some morphine than at the next med dose we could give her the Lortab (its vicodin &tylenol)  for kids.  She took her first dose of that and had no issues with getting sick. Encouraging cause they were sending us home with that.  We left the hospital at noon after she ate.  She fell asleep instantly ans slept until Whitehall.    The in and out the rest of the way home.  She played for a bit when we got home.  I gave her some pain meds and fed her - then she took another 2 hour nap.  When she woke up - it was time to take her antibiotic - I gave her some yogurt with the dose.  She was getting more crabby and just wanted to lay on the floor.  After about an hour - she got sick :(  For the next two hours she was still throwing up :(  That can happen from the antibiotic that she is on.  I was worried because of her sugar - I tried to test her sugar a few times and the meter kept reading an error.  Saying the strip or the meter was not working.  What a genius of technology I have.....Steve went to town to get some gel icing and a few other things we were going to need.  I called and had her surgeon paged.  He called back in 15 minutes (thats awesome).  He was going to call her in another script for the morning.  WE just had to get her tummy feeling better so I could feed her.  It was about 11pm when I finally was able to give her a little something and she had not thrown up since 8pm.  Since the glucose monitor was not working - I had Steve get new batteries too. Those did not work either.  I can't believe that thing does not work anymore - its only been used like 20 times.  I gave her some gel when Steve got home plus giving her gatorade/water mixed every 10 minutes.  I fed her every few hours last night along with her tylenol dose.  She is much better this morning!!  She is sitting and eating her puffs and now playing on the floor. She is even rolling around :)  The helmit thing is heavy so I am amazed she is holding her head up and moving like she is.  She is stronger than she even knows :) Tonite we get to take her helmit off.......I am nervous of how she will look under that thing.  Plus once its off her stitches are no longer protected.  I will update on how that goes.  For now I am looking forward to napping later today :)  Love to all!!!