After the Surgery

Today I got more facts about Mei-Lings surgery and learned some of the things I think I heard at 2 am were not right, such is the nature of late night calls when you have been asleep.

They did the surgery right in the ICU as she was in need of having it done immediately, despite the risks of having a seizure from her blood chemistry being so off the mark, by miracle she did not have a seizure. They have inserted a tube into her kidney and its draining properly from the tube now, and her chemistry is improving. Her hemoglobin is low from them taking so much blood from her for analysis, they have slowed down the number of times they are doing that. The blockage is due to too much paste and swelling, some of the paste will be absorbed into the body and the swelling will go down, so the first operation will no doubt be a perfect success. Often times they have to re-due it since more of the paste is absorbed than what they hoped for. Of course no one saw Mei-Lings complications coming but she was in the right place and had all the right staff and Doctors near her. She had an MD with her the entire night at her bed side with 4 nurses. We came all too close to loosing her last night.

She is a little sore you can tell, she keeps rolling over on her side rather than lay on her back but still she has not fussed and has had no pain medications. They will give them as needed and so far they have not been needed. She greeted Grammie with a big smile this afternoon and I got to feed her the first bottle of formula for the day. Melanie is tired and worn out, she actually is exhausted. Casi, has the emotional strength of ten men and has been so strong through all this.
Mei-Ling may be coming home tomorrow, complete with a tube sticking out her back. They will put in a new tube on Monday that is less likely to come out and hopefully all tubes will be removed in two weeks time as her own body starts working again.
This baby is such a fighter, so strong and good natured. All the nurses talk about what a good baby she is. When the noise of the other babies and children crying around her got too much for her, she pulled her blanket up over her head and went to sleep. It was so cute to see.

Keep her in your prayers and Melanie and Casi too, its going to be difficult to bring Mei-Ling home with tubes sticking out of her.