We skipped the post on surgery #11. That was the one on her lip at Hopkins and was not a pleasant experience at all. We are glad to be done with that one! Surgery# 12 is today at 11:00 am to expand the right and replace the left VEPTR as well as have ear tubes placed. We wanted to give Ava a little reward in advance, so we let her watch Caillou when she woke up this morning. We try to limit her Caillou watching for many reasons (can drive me crazy), but since she has such a love for the show, we couldn't withhold. Ava has done really well this time around with trying to be a good sport about surgery related things. On Monday we came up to Philadelphia for pre-op stuff and though some tears were shed, I noticed a big difference with Ava's willingness to try to go along with it all. I found if I explained things beforehand, she seemed to have more of a determination to be brave, although you can't blame the crying when the actual needle pokes. She has continued to have an amazing attitude that I have a lot to learn from!
Ava is a silly billy. Here she is just hanging out in her crib being a silly billy.
There really isn't alot of variety with this whole process, which can make these posts rather dry and repetitive. I guess the hospital is not the most exciting thing to write about, but I do feel that Ava deserves some kind of tribute every time she goes through this. I was thinking about it this morning and I think I would feel scared to do just one of these surgeries, but Ava has had to do it over and over and will continue to. It is all she has ever known, but that doesn't make it less invasive or frightening for her. I am beginning to see how this process really is going to shape Ava's character for life. I am so proud of who she is and who she will be.
I think we will have a ton of these pictures by the end of it all. Blue hospital chair, sterile room, beautiful dozy little girl on giggle juice, and two anxious parents.
We will update when Ava is out of surgery.
