The morning after

Surgery and the hospital are not easy on anyone, but I am so overwhelmed with everyone's kind words, thoughts, and especially prayers, that I know it made the whole day easier on all of us.

I'm not sure I understand why bilingual only means Spanish, but in Texas it does. The hospital had a computer that could translate information but between Grace, pantomiming, and that Annabel is just quick to understand things, she seemed to have an understanding of what was going to happen. But even with all of that I know it was scary.

She explored the child life specialist entire box of medical supplies, trying out the blood pressure cuff, the syringes, tied a tourniquet for a blood sample onto her doll, and listened to everyone's heart beat.

When they gave her the goofy juice, which knocked Grace out at her surgery, had little effect. Our good friend Mary pointed out that Annabel was reluctant to give up control, which I think is exactly right.

My dad questioned what must be going through her mind, with everyone speaking English, poking, prodding, and then medicine meant to help her relax, the whole time not sure of what would happen if she fell asleep. While I think she understood that they were operating on her ear, I wonder if she thinks her ear was removed! I know in China she saw lots of children with a variety of disabilities and some of which are being born without ears. I think she will be anxious to have the bandages removed.

It was a very long day and when we finally got home at 9:00 everyone was hungry. The one thing that I had been warned about was nausea from eating too much and too much movement.

Grandmother knew just the thing to make and brought over chicken and rice soup. We put both girls in my bed, fed them some soup, Poppa picked up the prescription, and we called it a night. Grace is congested and coughing again and have started her on her meds.

My choice of places to sleep were with the dogs on the floor (yuck!), at the foot of the bed (where I stayed most of the night), and alternating between the couch and the chair. But this old body can stand it at least one night!

Today the girls woke up SO HUNGRY!!!! I was trying to do too many things at once and turned on the burner to heat up some milk. I just can't seem to remember which knob works which burner (or maybe there was some sleep deprivation) and I caught the carton of eggs on fire. We love a bit of excitement with our breakfast.

The hospital called to check in and then the doctor's office.

The nurses, as we were discharged, gave instructions contrary to the doctor's and I was anxious to know which to follow. The hospital's main concern was getting her level of pain down, which seems to be very high, but she absolutely will not complain. Only if I ask her will she tell me how she is feeling.

The doctor's nurse called in pills rather than a liquid pain reliever and said to let her do what she wanted, rather than me trying to force her to be still. He said she would wear out quickly and then take it easy. How smart he was. They tried playing Wii, but very quickly each needed down time and we have lots of channels with cartoons.

I need to be at work this afternoon and if I go am thankful that Mom and Dad live so close that they can take over.

Day 5 of no fence. The weather is supposed to turn yucky and I don't know what I will do with them if it does!