Surviving Life With Tubes

Well, we have been home for a couple of days now, and the best way to describe our life right now would be to call it "a life of tubes." Because Ella has a few of them. The main tube will hopefully come out soon though - it is the drainage tube, and makes life just slightly more complicated for us right now. We need to empty and measure all of the fluid that it collects. And Ella needs to manage dressing and maneuvering around it. So we will be glad when it's gone.

Here is a picture we took yesterday. You can see exactly what this drain looks like. It is clipped onto the front of her shirt, so that she can walk around. You can also see one of the three ports - the one that is coming out just in front of her left ear. This is the longest of the three. There is another just behind that same ear, and the third is behind the right ear.


You can also see the stitches on her head - there are three on the top. One going down the center, one in the back, and one just above her ear. The fourth stitch is just above her right ear. Another thing to notice is the area between the middle stitch and the bow on her head - the lighter area of skin on the top of her head. Before the surgery, she had hair there. Somehow, it was removed during the procedure.

Her hair is pretty mangley right now. But there is not much we can do. We can't really wash or comb/brush it, so it's quite a sight!

We have had two small meltdowns in the time we were home. The first was yesterday, when Ella wanted to take a shower or a bath. When I told her that she couldn't, she did not like that answer AT ALL. And the second was this morning. Dave and I went to church in shifts so that one of us could be home with Ella while the other of us was at church. It worked out well because the church we go to is only a few minutes away, and there are 2 services on Sunday mornings. So when Dave went to the early church service, and I was getting ready for the later service, Ella was not too happy to hear that I would be going to church without her. It was hard to tell her she couldn't go to church, when she wanted to come with so bad. She seemed to have a counter-argument for just about every reason I gave why she needed to stay home. At least she loves going to church! So hopefully she will be able to come with us again soon.

Here are a few more pictures I wanted to post. First is a picture of Ella's main Christmas present - the Playmobil Hospital. It is pretty cool. And very realistic. She loves to play with it, and probably knows a little too much already about everything that happens there.


Last Friday, Ella and I drove up to the Mall of America. And I let her ride on the airplane. She had so much fun and it was so much fun to watch her beam as she "flew" her airplane! She is getting WAY too independent for my liking though - and growing up WAY too fast!



The day before her surgery, we received a wonderful surprise in the mail - a package from Uncle Paul and Aunt Dana! Inside were some Christmas presents for us all. Ella was so excited to open all of hers! Here she is with one of her favorites - it was a book all about bones and other parts of the body, and came with a model skeleton, that Dave was busy putting together. She slept with the book that night, and the first night back home. Yes, she is still fascinated with bones, and other parts of the human body. She held up one of the pages to me, and said "Look! Here's a gallbladder!"