Yep, nothing……nada…..I mean, EVERY picture, every highlight of my life with Mary and Robert and family that I captured on this camera since last November is gone forever!!! The good news is that before Mary’s surgery, I DID download them to our computer. The bummer news is that Mary deleted them AND pictures I took of our brief hospital stay the day after her surgery. No “Mary’s Surgery” pictures!!! I mean, hey – I didn’t even get a chance to download what few pics I had at the hospital and she gets her hot little hands on the camera and with one touch of her finger….gone.
So now that I’ve grieved my photogenic loss, onto the update!!!!
The morning of the surgery, we get our sleepy head up and dressed in her favorite Disney Princess pajamas that her Aunt Nancy got her. We drove in the dark to the hospital and by that time, Mary was just excited and chatting up a storm, oohing and aahing at the tall buildings, we were all shivering and holding hands in the dark together as we entered what felt like a tomb of a hospital. Kind of eerie getting there that early with hardly anyone around.
We register and get comfortable in our little room where Mary readily took her “kiddy sedative”….none for Mama or Dada! So we’re taking pictures (that we don’t have anymore) Mary is getting really comfortable and ‘they’ come in, put the bed rails up and advise us to kiss her and tell her “goodbye”. I about fell out – no they didn’t just use the “G” word?!?!?!??! We kiss her and her lower lip starts to quiver bad and she starts crying – loudly! I tell her “we’ll see you later” but she doesn’t hear that, she kicks the covers off, sits straight up in bed and starts to holler and the nurses book out of the room with our baby girl wailing all the way down the hall! I start to cry only because she’s scared and I try to imagine what she’ll think of everything, how she'll think of us, seeing how she woke up happy and excited and is wheeled off by strangers only to wake up feeling like crap! Its not like we could explain what was about to happen to a 4 year old with normal hearing – Mary is just now learning language and how to communicate so we did the best we could…which as a new parent, I’m realizing that our 'very best' sometimes doesn’t feel like it’s enough, especially regarding this event in Mary’s life. So we pray for God’s grace and mercy – LOTS OF IT!
Waiting, reading and texting our loved ones regarding Mary’s status, time passed with ease and before we knew it, Dr. Bryant comes in with a smile on his face to let us know how it all went down. He informs us that it was “textbook” surgery which meant, that it went fairly perfect! PRAISE THE LORD! He stated that there was hardly any bleeding, that her adenoids were HUGE so the removal of them opened up her airway quite a bit! When the tubes were inserted in her ears, a significant amount of fluid came out, especially out of her right ear which is her strong ear! We could tell Dr. Bryant was glad to give us this good news. So our little Momo had to wait in recovery just a little longer and then she’d be coming back to us! We thanked Dr. Bryant profusely (– he’s really had Mary’s best interest all along, we are so grateful for his sense of urgency and compassion on our daughter) and as the conversation closes and the Dr. leaves, I thank God out loud, kiss Robert on the lips and we are both beside ourselves – we just cannot wait ‘til Mary gets back! Eventually, Mary is rolled back into our room looking very pitiful and scared. Robert and I bend over her bed to tell her how much we love her and she sees us and starts crying. I can tell she’s still scared and wonder if she feels betrayed. I think she did. At any rate, Mary had a couple of bouts of nausea and vomiting so the additional recovery time back in the room took quite a bit longer but she finally got where she could hold the liquids down and swallow without any problem although we could tell she was in pain when she did.
We got back home and I got Mary settled in while Robert filled her prescriptions. She still had some nausea and she indicated at one time that she felt like she was going to throw up by pointing to her mouth and the emesis basin we brought home. She never did throw up again and for the first 48 hours back home, we kept her pain meds steady. Even that very night, the pain meds allowed her appetite to come back and she wolfed down some scrambled eggs! So now – we’re almost one week out and Mary is back at school this morning! Her breath is still pretty foul from the surgery but her spirits are high, she only needs some Children’s Motrin once or twice a day, she’s active and just…….MARY!!!! We can tell already what a huge difference her surgery has made. She sleeps soundly and awakes more rested. Hardly ANY snoring – as a matter of fact, the only ‘soft’ snoring we’ve heard is due to the swelling she still has. More significantly, we can tell a huge difference in her hearing with the fluid out of her ears! She really seems to understand us better and her speech even sounds more articulate!!! We’re fired up!
We still have to monitor her for any possible bleeding as her wounds heal and scab - her follow up appointment is coming up Monday.
We anticipate she’ll be plowing through life, full steam ahead with more power in about another week and a half! Next month – we have the consult for the cochlear implant for her left ear so we can’t imagine the gains we’ll see Mary experience in the next few months, not to mention by the end of this year! Mary Katherine Businda is truly, one tough little girl on every level. It’s a given that she’s had to be with the start in life that she’s had. And as Robert and I continue to love on her and help her get to where she needs to be, we are mindful of the responsibility to Mary regarding her spiritual path and how her journey of healing (ALL aspects of it) plays into that. God continues to reveal to us more boldly and outwardly that he IS who he says he is and that his word is unfailing. We are constantly in awe of his work in Mary’s life, in our own life and always humbled that he chose us to be her parents and chose Mary to be our daughter. It is in these moments of clarity in our relationship with God that all other distractions and worldly realities become a lesser burden with little significance. Keeping that clarity – that’s the challenge we have before us and one that’s highly desired!.
Dada, Mary & Mama playing in the snow this past week!
Our little Momo, two days post-op!
