1 Week post op

[mom2mykidos3]

Miriam is doing great. I think I have used that word a lot in the past week. She never did bruise that much. I am starting to wonder if that is because she didn't have a lot of blood in her. They did have to do the blood transfusion, but it was close. If her hemiglobin would have gone down 1 more point I think they would have.
Now a lot of the swelling has gone down. We can now see the bumps and lumps that I am hoping will go away. She is back to wanted to go everywhere. She is so busy.
She is doing much better at keeping the food down. She color in her face has come up quiet a bit too.
It is just amazing to me how well she is doing. We have taken her out and people are amazed that we are out and at how well she looks.
Here is a picture of her eating her first food and one with some pumkins. Thanks for all the prayers and good thoughts. I know they helped.

http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l38/mom2mykidos3/KIF_0941.jpg

http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l38/mom2mykidos3/KIF_0940.jpg

IMG]http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l38/mom2mykidos3/KIF_0935.jpg[/IMG]

[mom2mykidos3]

I don't know why the other picture didn't come up, but here it is again.

http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l38/mom2mykidos3/KIF_0935.jpg

[Jennifer]

Absolutely adorable! :adore

[lucsdad]

she looks so happy! it makes me feel comforted to see her. she's a doll.

thanks for sharing!!!!!
lisa

[infinity]

so glad things went well. my son was close with the blood transfusion as well, he almost made it without one, but later that evening the drs. changed their minds, bc his hg level went down after the second blood test, and his heart rate was high. his hemoglobin was 26 right after surgery, and then 7 hrs later it went down to 23. i am curious, what was your daughters level? i didnt quite get what you wrote - did she need a transfusion? bc my son didnt bruise much either. she's a cutie btw!

[plukids]

Miriam is such a doll! She looks awesome. Thanks for sharing your photos. Sylvie did have a blood transfusion after surgery. She did have quite a bit of bruising. I'm not sure that there is a correlation with transfusion vs. not and bruising. hmmm......

[laurensmom]

She looks so awesome. Lauren needed one blood transfusion during surgery and was really swollen afterward. Well...she looks amazing and you must be so relieved it's all over!

[snickers9246]

She looks adorable for sure!! Thanks for sharing those pics, love the pumpkins!!!

[mom2mykidos3]

Miriam's blood was at 28 right after surgery, but mind you that her starting count at 38 which is high. The blood count was so high because of the Procrit give prior to surgery. Anyway, at 11:00 pm, day of surgery, it was at 24. The next morning it was still at 24. So, they said since it didn't go down they weren't going to do the transfusion. On Sunday morning it was at 26. So, it was going up.
She was quiet pale for the first few days we were home, but we just gave her some iron and it has helped. She is fine now.

[Katie]

Wow, look at that doll! She looks incredible, like she is a month post op. I never would have guessed she was only a week out if I didn't knoew her story :adore Dillon also had a transfusion and a lot of swelling and bruising.

[Matthews Mommy]

She looks wonderful, I am so happy everything went well, sorry I have not been around but I do pray for everyone here all the time. Glad to see her bouncing back babies are so much stronger than us.

[Rhonda O]

She looks wonderful! I would have never guess that it has only been a week by looking at the pictures. What a cutie!

[saraweise]

ok. I am so terribly late. But SHE IS A DOLL!! Who could tell she is just post op!? She is too sweet!

[Melissa]

LOL - I always think the ones where they have food on their face are so cute, for some reason. (One of my favorites is of my younger son's first birthday, with blue cake icing smeared all over.) I think she looks great, and don't worry too much about the lumps and bumps - those things have a way of working themselves out over time. I don't know, but I suspect that it may be from swelling behind pushing things out a bit, and once that goes away the parts look like they're supposed to. You'll probably continue to see changes for the next month or so...

Bryson had to have transfusions with some of his surgeries, and not with others. One new thing I've heard about from friends who's kids have been going through craniofacial surgeries in the recent past is that some doctors are starting to use Procrit injections to boost the blood levels before the surgery - in turn, it keeps the levels from dropping too low during/after, and reduces the chance of a transfusion. I don't really know a whole lot of details, but any of you guys looking at having a big surgery in the future could probably ask your doctors the pros/cons if you're interested. My friends have been pretty happy with the results (ie: no transfusions) so far...