Discharged!

We have officially been discharged! We are on our way home as I write this. Mia is doing well, she still is very uncomfortable as her body adjusts to real food again. Pray that she would adjust quickly. It's great to be going home!

So, they are starting Mia on regular food today and assuming all goes well we should be discharged tomorrow! She has been healing well and is uncomfortable every now and then, so pray that her body would tolerate the food adjustment.

Mia's First Dirty Diaper!

Mia has been having small amounts of clear liquids since about 12:30 today and she has had her first dirty diapers! There was much rejoicing over the stinky diaper! So, we are doing great! Praise God for dirty diapers!

Mia lost her IV this afternoon, so they are closely watching her liquid intake, so far she has barely been making the cutoff, so hopefully she won't need a new IV, pray that her tummy would continue to adjust to the stuff going in and that she wouldn't need an IV.

Mia continues to look and act more and more like her normal self each day. What we've heard is that because her tummy has started waking up (she has been passing gas), they are going to start her on some clear liquids today. We haven't started yet, but we will let you know how it goes. Pray that she would tolerate this well.

Her IV is still working, thank you Lord! We aren't ready to lose it yet, so pray that it would hang in there until she doesn't need it anymore. I'm amazed it has lasted this long, it's a definite answer to prayer!

Mia slept much better last night and only needed a half dose of pain medication one time, so far today she hasn't needed anyway, which is more great news! We continue to be so grateful at how well everything is going! Thank you for praying (I know we say it alot, but it means the world to us that you would take time to pray for our little girl.)

Doing great!

Mia is doing awesome! She started passing gas, and let me tell you, I have never been that excited about gas before in my life. That is an excellent sign that her plumbing is healing, and we'll be trying some food in no time. (A day or two?) Mia is also acting more and more normal, smiling, laughing, just being her normal cute self. Thank you SO much for praying, God gave the skills and abilities and knowledge to the doctors here, and we are forever grateful.

Philippians 4:6-7
"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."

Mia continues to do really well, she has been sitting more upright and watching us play with her toys, and that's been very good for her. Her surgeon stopped by this morning and thought she looked really good for only 2 days after surgery. His concern is for her intestines to start working in the next day or so, otherwise we are going to start some different IV fluids with more calories/nutrition in them. The downside to this is that they have to make sure she is getting the proper dose and that means daily blood draws, and there is a potential risk to the liver with this, however if she needs nutrition then this is what will happen. Pray for those intestines to start working.

She hasn't been in too much pain, she hasn't had any pain medicine since last night, which is amazing. Continue to pray for her pain management and overall healing. Her IV is also barely holding on, so keep praying for that too. And as always, thank you for praying!

Colorful Friday

Mia is still doing very well overall. We got some better sleep last night, we were still up several times to change diapers and take vitals, but it was less interrupted than the day before. Hopefully Mia will get several good naps today.

So, right now some of the concerns are that her tummy is a little bloated because her intestines haven't "woken up" yet. If she were a little more active that would help getting them going again. Pray that she would start to pass gas because that will help with the bloating. Her lungs have a bit of junk in them also because we haven't been very active, so pray that they would clear up as she gets to feeling better (we just don't want it to develop into pneumonia, which can be very common). Also, her IV is starting to show signs of not lasting much longer and we still need it, so pray that it would hang on as long as we need it.

Last night Nana was very creative and we ended up having a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner with all the fixings. It was nice. We have so much to be thankful for! Thank you Lord for blessing us abundantly and may we be continually reminded of how you sent your son as the ultimate blessing and sacrifice in the coming weeks as we prepare for Christmas.

The Best Thanksgiving Ever...quite possibly. :)

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! We are so blessed, I know the next few days won't be easy for Mia, but my heart keeps doing these little summersaults of joy. It's so exciting to be on the final road of recovery. Thank you God for such a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Mia is doing great, she had a small fever last night, but after some Tylenol she's much better. She is getting morphine for pain control and so that makes her a bit itchy, so then she gets Benadryl for the itchiness. I think she is tolerating her pain fairly well, so keep praying for that! Right now she and Daddy are watching Elmo and she is happy as can be.

They just came in and did a blood draw on her and I was so thankful that they had no problems getting blood out of her, her veins have miraculously become better with this surgery! Praise God! You can keep praying that she won't lose her IV, it's on her right hand and she rubs that hand on her nose when she is itchy, I try to keep holding her hand, but I don't always catch it. :)

Yesterday the surgeon told me that he used a muscle stimulator to test how her anal muscles were doing and she was able to contract her muscles very well, which is a great sign that she will be able to physically control her bowels, now time will only tell if she cognitively is able to make that connection herself, but such great news! Thank you God for working muscles!

You can continue to pray for healing, they will be listening to her tummy for the next couple of days and listening for the right sounds that tell us when her body says it is ok to put food in. They also look at what comes out of your diaper and when she starts to produce stuff, then they will know her intestines are starting to work again. Pray for her to pass gas because that will help to keep things moving through the tummy. Of course, every time we give her morphine that slows down the whole process, so pray for a good balance, that her intestines would start working in spite of the pain medicine.

May you have a wonderful Thanksgiving as we are!

Not eating for three to five days

We just learned that Mia is not going to be eating for three to five days till her intestine repair has a chance to heal. I assumed that they would give her calories by IV, but the nurse said that was not the plan. There are some calories in IV fluid, but not as much as TPN. ( Total Parental Nutrition) Some residents from the surgery team came by and told us that when the body starts putting stuff through the repaired intestine, that is a sign it's ok for Mia to start eating. Mia got some Morphine by IV, every two hours as needed for pain. We don't want her to hurt. We also met some more people from Bakersfield here, our neighbor Isabel and her husband Richard, and Darren Singleton is here with his son Jacob. What a small town! Thanks for thinking of us this thanksgiving, and all your prayers for a quick recovery.

Great News

Praise God, Mia is done with surgery and everything went really well! She is in recovery and we are waiting to see her, I will post more later tonight, but we are so grateful and thankful to all of you for praying and to God be the Glory!!!

We just heard from the OR, Mia is doing great, IV's went in no problem, they just started the procedure.

We just watched them take Mia into the OR, they are going to be putting in IV lines and preparing for surgery. Pray for easy IV access and a smooth surgery. It should take about 3 hours, we will let you know when we hear something new.

We got to LA safely and are waiting for Mia's scheduled surgery time: 8:30. She didn't sleep well last night, but she did sleep in the car ride down. When we got here everyone remembered her from this summer, they were excited this is going to be her last surgery. Right now she is happily playing.

Pray for easy IV access, they won't try until they take her back, but she has always been difficult to get IV's in.

Doing Great

Mia has done so great day, thank you God! She has been drinking her Pedialyte like a trooper and even enjoyed some chicken broth for lunch. She does not like jello, for whatever reason, so we've been sticking to the Pedialyte and broth. She hasn't been complaining too much. I feel bad eating, so I don't eat in front of her, so I guess she just thinks that this is what it is today.

Please continue to pray for tonight and tomorrow. I just found out that we have to be there at 6am for an 8:30am surgery time. That's actually pretty realistic, so we will be leaving here around 4am tomorrow. Pray for safe travel and that Mia would fall back asleep in the car, otherwise it could be a long ride for her.

Pray that everything would go well tomorrow and we will post things as soon as we are able, so we will definitely keep you up-to-date. God is so good and we continue to trust Him through this final surgery for Mia.

Miralax

So, the Miralax has worked great, almost too great. She drank it without any complaints this morning mixed in with her apple juice and about an hour later we were completely cleared out. I forgot how runny liquid in her bag makes it not stick so well, so two bag changes later, we hopefully have a good system for the rest of the day. Cotton Puffs. Yup, stick them in her bag and they soak everything up, I just have to be proactive in checking her bag about once an hour and replacing those puffs.

Overall she has tolerated today super well. She's been drinking alot of Pedialyte, so hopefully that will keep her from becoming dehydrated. She tried some jello, but didn't really like it, we are going to try some chicken broth after we get up from our nap. I do have to say that Elmo has kept us very happy so far, you gotta love that red fur ball.

Thanks for praying and I'll post more later with how the rest of our day goes.

Clear Liquid Day

Tomorrow Mia begins her prep for her intestinal surgery on Wednesday, so all day she will be on clear liquids. After doing some research and talking with a friend who is a doctor, I decided to ask UCLA if Mia could take Miralax instead of the Oral Fleet. There were concerns with the Fleet because it was voluntarily recalled last year after it was linked to kidney problems. Since Mia has had some kidney issues in the past, I was more concerned and definitely wanted to proceed on the side of caution, so tomorrow we will be taking Miralax, which is much more gentle, instead. Pray that everything would go smoothly, that the Miralax would do the job and that Mia would stay hydrated. I'm trying to get as much done today and tonight so that I can just be with her tomorrow and not worry about packing, etc. We can just have a fun day playing games and watching her favorite Elmo videos. Please keep praying for everything to go smoothly on Wednesday and for the entire surgical team to be at their best. I will let you know how tomorrow goes!!!

Mia is doing great, thank you for praying! It's getting closer to surgery day and I have to continually remind myself that God commands us to not be anxious about anything. And I know that, but by nature, these worrying thoughts keep creeping back. Yet, I keep reminding myself of these truths...I trust God completely, I know He is in control, and I know He loves my daughter more than I do, I trust Him completely. And I can't help but look at everything Mia has been through and the hand of God is so evident to me, that is a great reminder in itself.

So, here are some things to be praying for.

1. Health, that's a biggie because there seems to be so much going around these days, I keep hearing about more and more people getting sick, so continue to pray for Mia's health prior to surgery.

2. The doctors and surgery team, pray that they would be energized and rested on Wednesday, that God would grant them skill and success in her surgery.

3. Tuesday, the day before surgery, I have to give Mia some medicine (Oral Fleet, what you take before a colonoscopy...), and I have no clue how she's going to react, how her body will handle it. She also is going to be on a clear liquid diet after that until after her surgery on Wednesday, so I'm not sure how she will tolerate that either, pray for a smooth Tuesday and Wednesday morning.

As always, thanks for praying for our little pumpkin!!!

Better

So, Mia is doing great today, which makes me think it was either a tummy that was too full or something she ate didn't sit well with her. We are grateful she is feeling normal again. Please continue to pray for good health over the next couple of days.

We've started decorating for Christmas since we aren't going to be here over Thanksgiving. It's been really nice because I will slowly bring out another box of stuff and Mia gets excited to dig through it and see what's inside. She loves the Christmas tree and the nativity sets we have. She especially likes the animals, go figure. Anyway, she was rather cooperative in this photo shoot today, so here are a few pictures of our sweet pea. Notice the pigtails, that was alot of fun. ;)

Mia threw up this afternoon. She wasn't acting normal after she got up from her nap and then she just threw up. She only did it once, so I'm not sure if she has a bug or if it was related to something she ate that didn't settle in her tummy properly. She didn't have a fever and seemed fine this evening, but please pray that it is nothing serious and that she is healthy for surgery next week. Ultimately, we will trust God for his timing and if she isn't well next week then we will need to reschedule. Pray for God's perfect timing and for our wisdom to discern that. We will keep you posted on how she is feeling.

Pre-Op Visit

Today we went to LA to see Mia's intestinal surgeon for a pre-op visit. We also needed to move up to the final size on her dilator! Yay, we are finally at a 13!!! The visit went great, I can't believe that surgery will be next week Wednesday, that just seems like it is going to get here very soon. We got some instructions for getting ready on Tuesday, Mia will be on a liquid diet the day before and she'll be given some medicine to clean out the intestines. You can be praying now that the process would go easily for her, it will be very similar to the process before a colonoscopy, and people keep telling me it isn't fun. She can have as much jello, pedialyte, chicken broth, clear liquids as she wants, but still, I'm not sure how that will go. The good news is it is only 1 day!

After seeing her surgeon, we got a sweet visit from the gal who schedules all of the pediatric surgery visits, Gail. I feel like we have become friends since I seemed to talk to her every couple of days this summer when we were trying to get Mia's bottom healed. And she just feels closely connected to Mia, so she came over and finally got to meet Mia. It was very sweet, she brought her a UCLA bear, which Mia loves and didn't want to put down for the car ride home. :)

After that we went downstairs for Mia to have an echo done of her heart. I think it looked great, but won't know for certain until one of the cardiologists reads it and gets back to us. So, assuming that looks fine and we are in good health, then we are a go for next week Wednesday surgery.

On a side note, Mia is not gaining weight, in fact, she's lost some weight, and I'm at a loss because I feel like she's eating fairly well. Pray for wisdom and maybe some direction, maybe it's time to see a dietician or a GI doctor (not surgeon) and get some input from them. And I know kids grow at their own pace and she is getting longer, she's just not getting heavier, we've been at this weight for almost 4 months now. So, please be praying for us in that also. (I'm not worrying, which is actually a praise because in the past I worried so much about it, I just need some guidance.)

As always, thanks for praying!

Soon

It's hard to believe that we are getting very close to Mia's final surgery. I was changing her colostomy bag today thinking, wow, I might not be doing this very much longer. Life will definitely be different without a colostomy bag. I can't even imagine what it will be like. So, some things you can pray for as we prepare for her next surgery.

1. Health, we are all recovering from a cold, so pray that Mia especially would be healthy and ready for surgery in a week and a half.

2. The doctors and surgery team, wisdom and preparedness for the day.

3. Peace, I get a bit anxious when I think about it, but then I remember how God has taken care of us through everything and it settles my nerves, but I am human, so pray that myself and Brad would be reminded of God's truths when we start to feel anxious or nervous.

On a different note, Mia has come so far in her eating, she's doing great...we are eating more new foods and more difficult foods and her chewing is getting stronger and better, so Praise God! Also, she's saying a few more sounds, every now and then we get a hi in the middle of a he and a ha, so Praise God for that also, please keep praying for more sounds and speech!

Wedding Photos

I would have put these photos on yesterday, but the thumb drive they were on mysteriously went to work, so here they are today!

Mommy & Mia, Aunt Rachel & Cousin Joy!

These are the birds that Mia almost pulled onto the floor as we were waiting for the ceremony to start. Brad was walking his mother in, so I was holding Mia until he came back and she grabbed the cage and started pulling...thankfully I was able to stop her in time and the crisis was diverted. The birds say thank you.

Joy, Aunt Rachel, and Beautiful Bride Aunt Goose (also known as Laura)

At the end of the night, Mia in her pajamas, us dancing one last song before I take her into the stairwell (far enough away from the loud music) so she can sleep.

At the hotel, not at the wedding, but what a cute family!

Home

We got home last night from our lovely vacation to Portland! It was great, we got to enjoy Jared and Laura's wedding while spending time with family on our vacation. Mia had quite a few "firsts" on this trip, which were very exciting. It was her first airplane trip, which she did super on. We had no problems with ears or anything, thank you God! It was her first time being a flowergirl, of which will forever be a sweet memory for me. Did she throw petals...not really, until after she was done going down the aisle, then she decided she knew exactly what too do, oh well. It was very precious regardless. It was also her first time holding a dove and letting it go! Jared's family has about 60 doves that they maintain and people use at weddings and funerals for release. Well, Jared's dad let each of the kids release a dove the Sunday after the wedding at their home. I can't even describe how excited Mia was and how much she enjoyed watching those birds fly away. It was too cute! And lastly, it was Mia's first "official" time in a swimming pool with a suit and swimmer diapers. :) She loved the water, so I am very excited for us to start water physical therapy in the new year.

Here are a few photos from our trip away.

Mia and her cousin Joy from Italy!

Holding the dove...

A dove being released...

Swimming!

Having a great time in Portland!

First Plane Trip!

Last night we drove up to Sacramento where my (Lisa's) brother lives. We spent the night there and some time with them this morning before we flew out of Sacramento to Portland. Mia did pretty well in the car until it was 8pm and she was ready for bed, but we still had another hour and a half to go. At that point she was too tired, so we ended up pulling off the freeway and I held her for about 10 minutes until she fell asleep, then back in the carseat and asleep for the rest of the trip.

I didn't know how she was going to do on the plane today with the changes in air pressure, but she did great! Praise God! Thanks for praying. I kept having her munch on Lucky Charms and take sips from her sippy cup and she did great. We ended up using her carseat on the plane, which was great because she's so used to being strapped into it anyway. She did so well, I was so pleased with her first plane trip. The flight was only 1 hour and 45 minutes, so I think it was a good flight to break us in, I know that something longer might be a bit more difficult, but so far so good. It gives me hope for future plane trips.

Once in Portland we met Grampa at the airport and were taken to our hotel and then finally, Mia got to meet Joy. Joy is Tim & Rachel's little girl, the two girls have actually met a summer ago, but they were too young to remember, probably still are, but it was so neat to see them in the same location together. Mia is definitely more shy than Joy who warmed up pretty quickly and began to say "Mia" quite a bit (she's been practicing...), but I will give the girls another day or two together and I imagine they will be fast friends.

We are loving the Portland weather, nice and cool, just like fall should be and trees...so pretty, Mia kept pointing at them as we were driving...there just aren't trees like that in lovely bako-land. We'll post more pictures as we get them. :)

School Pictures and more...

Today Mia had her very first school pictures taken. I was rather amused with the whole process, you try to get a bunch of little kids to look at you and smile nicely for the camera. There was one little boy in Mia's class who was such a ham, he stood nicely, tilted his head a bit and gave this super cute smile. He would be perfect as the next Baby Gap model. Mia did pretty well, it only took them 4 shots to get a "good" picture...we'll see how it turns out. :)

Tomorrow we leave on our vacation for Brad's little sister's wedding. We are flying on Wednesday, so pray for safe travel and for Mia's ears with the air pressure, I'm not exactly sure how she's going to do. Pray for a restful vacation amidst all the wedding stuff. Mia is going to be a flowergirl, along with her cousin Joy, so we should get plenty of cute pictures of the two of them together.

And we now have a surgery date for Mia's final intestinal surgery (and hopefully final surgery ever...), it will be on November 25th, the day before Thanksgiving. I just realized that is only 23 days away, a little more than 3 weeks, that is going to go quick, so please pray for us as we prepare for that.