Home Again Again

We were able to get our angel home later on Friday night.  Here she is, ready to ditch the hospital and go home with a soft crocheted cap instead of the hard helmet.

And here it is Wednesday afternoon, and I'm just now getting around to telling about it.  We've just been busy since then.  It reminds me of when Angelee was in the hospital the first time and her first-grader brother, trying to find positives in the situation, said, "Well, at least it is quieter around here."  Yes, it is quieter when our little spitfire isn't here.  But it's a too-empty, not-good kind of quiet.  I like my active house with our happy, on-the-go family.  It's just not right when we aren't all here.

Some random notes from in the hospital:  Angelee slept really well in the hospital this time.  Sleeping helps her to heal, and it helps Dad not to be a basket case in the morning.  The hospital gives plain cloth dolls (with hospital gowns) to the children to decorate.  The staff can use the dolls to demonstrate procedures, too.  Angelee loved her dolly, and wanted Mommy to draw lots of happy faces on it.  It's neat that volunteers make these dolls to help so many sick kids!

We were initially told that she had damaged the speech center of her brain, and may not talk or understand language.  Her CT scans now show a completely empty spot where her brain was damaged.  Her language skills now are nothing short of miraculous, and even better now than before the fall.  It was nice this time that she could tell us when it hurt.  "Owie, right here."

  Angelee's head drain worked better this time, and didn't spill out onto her head and pillow.  That was kind of gross last go around.  After surgery, they leave a small tube under her skin, connected to a little plastic ball.  The ball slowly fills up with fluid (we called it Angelee juice) that otherwise would have made her head and face swell up.  The drain wasn't working right for the last surgery, and she swelled up.  This time, however, we had very little swelling, even after we went home.  Yes, she swelled.  Her face was pretty lopsided for a couple of days.  But she didn't get a black eye, and her left eye didn't even swell shut.  Now she's looking pretty good - except for the long line of stitches snaking across her head.  Here is her first self-portrait, taken when she stole my camera.  You can see a bit of swelling:

And here she is, with a happy brother, two days after surgery.  This is the most swelling she had.

Her brothers are sure happy to have her back home and doing so well.  Here she is, singing with another brother on the piano.  Love it!