Wednesday, February 28, 2018

Amazed

Its now been over a week since Kinley had surgery, and its hard to tell she had anything done!  This girl is a rock star!  Besides having a stiff neck and an impressive scar on the back of her head, she looks like any other kid.  I cant believe that a week ago she could not even sit up for a few seconds.  The poor baby was in constant pain.  And now she pushes me away when I ask her if anything hurts.  "I'm healing fine mom!"  That's the response I get now.
The hard part about it all is that Kinley may feel great, but we cant let her do the things she is used to doing.  She still needs to stay calm.  No running, jumping, and just plain being a kid.  Its hard!!  This is the girl who comes running into the living room, sees the couch in front of her, and does a back flip to get herself on it.  And then continues to stand on her head while watching TV.  So I'm a little scared to take my eyes off of her.  No telling what she would do when I'm not looking!
I think Kinley will be all ready to go back to school next week.  She misses her friends dearly and is sad every day when Carter leaves for school. 
We are so blessed to have Kinley healing up so well.  We go back to Seattle in 3 months.  At that time they will do another MRI.  Our hope is that this surgery has allowed the Syrinx in her spine to start to shrink.  Which would hopefully result in her spine going back to the midline.  And then we can eventually get rid of the brace she wears.  Hopefully things will just keep getting better and better for sweet Kinley.

Tuesday, February 27, 2018

Home

The drive home was longer then we had hoped.  We got stopped on the pass for 2 hours due to horrible weather.  Despite the drive taking much longer then we anticipated, Kinley did amazing.  She was able to sleep much of the way.  And thankfully she did not have too much discomfort sitting up in the car seat.  

So excited to see all the cards from her friends at school!!!  So sweet!!!  Thank you!!!

Carter sat down next to her and read every card to her!!  Talk about melting my heart!

Reading his sister a good night story.  We moved her bed into our room temporally so it would be easier to give her medications all night long.  And she is also still unsteady on her feet, so I don't trust her to make it to the bathroom on her own.  

Snuggling with Grandpa!!!
We made it home to a super clean house, kids taken care of, and dinner cooking.  I could not have done this with out my parents taking care of the stuff at home.  Thank you , thank you, thank you!!! XOXOXO

Discharge Day

Friday we woke up with the goal to be discharged later in the day.  Kinley was having good pain control with oral medications, so as long as she could tolerate the drive home, then we could leave.
Wagon ride around the unit to get used to sitting up!
What laying in bed for days does to your hair!  I was so nervous to tackle this!

Lots of detangler spray and deep breaths went into getting this hair back to normal. 

The final result!  Pretty impressive incision sites!
Wagon ride to the gift shop got Kinley excited to sit up a little more.  

And she is out of there!!!  Whoop Whoop!!!

All tucked in at the Ronald McDonald house.  Leaving the hospital was more exhausting and painful then she had imagined.  

Recovering

 Midnight Chocolate Milkshake

Thursday was filled with feeling slightly better and sleeping lots. We kept encouraging Kinley to sit up a little, but she was not able to tolerate it for longer then a few minutes.   

Dragon Fly Smiles!
 Unicorn Smiles!
 Fairy Lights made by her Grandpa.  They are on every night by her bed so the Fairy's can watch over her as she sleeps.
Late Thursday, we got Kinley up to go to the bathroom right before bed.  While she was up, she said "I think I need to go for a walk".  And she did!  It was pretty amazing to see her just get up and take a few steps down the hall.  She continues to blow us away with her strength!