Day 5

Day 5 post-op--or should I say, DISCHARGE DAY!

Elena was in pretty good spirits today. The morning was spent calming her down between doctor visits, removal of IVs/tubes, filling out discharge information and getting Elena to eat. The hospital preschool teacher came by for a visit to ask if E wanted to go to school; she said yes. I sent her there with Grandma b/c I was expecting another doctor visit before discharge.
About 20 minutes later, my mom came in huffing and puffing asking me if it was alright for Elena to be moving around. I said, "clarify moving around".
"Oh, you know, crawling around, sitting up, reading books--is that okay?"

I bolted.

Sure enough--there she was, sitting up on the floor getting a book. She was a little shaky with balance, sort of like a newborn kitten moving around. She was having a great time in the preschool.





After school, we said good-bye to the nurses and strolled out. She was VERY happy to be going home!

Priorities were 1) BATH, 2) lunch, 3) NAP. But first she insisted on taking care of her baby sister, giving her a good rock before getting to business.



She also crawled a little--head up, tabletop, with reciprocal leg motion. Not a great pic, but here's what I have.



She can sit in a "w" sit but she really leans back. She also knows when she w-sits, we always ask her to "fix her feet", meaning try to taylor sit or side-sit. She always does it with her left foot (first), b/c that's the easiest leg to move around for her. It took her a while, she was almost studying herself as she moved, but she got to a side-sit with her left leg. I asked her if she wanted to fix her right foot and she tried and fell backwards (but laughed about it). She asked me to help her, so I tried, but she didn't seem comfortable, so I just let her play sitting however she wanted.



Later in the day, she sat on her "office" bench (bench without a back). She sat up and played with both hands. Sometimes she leaned so far back I thought she would fall, but she caught herself. We also played beans by her Bean Box. She sat in a chair with a back and arms; she normally leans over to play in the beans but I think this movement is painful. So I put a bunch of beans on the top of the box and that seemed to be good for now.



She did some standing drills, and we even "walked" on our treadmill before going to bed (we held her up, no shoes, and she lightly placed her toes on the platform and took maybe 5 steps before she said she was finished).

AMAZING. We are so thankful for everyone...our therapists, doctors, nurses, teachers, aides, friends, neighbors, and everyone just sending us good thoughts. Jason and I are dog tired. And NOW the hard part begins, right?