On the Road to Recovery! "Jia You"

ChinaBean's Fontan surgery went well and she is successfully on the road to recovery!

The night before her surgery we decided to combine the best of East & West cuisine and we dined on Chinese and pizza.  It was a good "last meal" before the big day.

Mmm pizza & rice!

ChinaBean stayed up so late the night before her surgery; she was being silly and could not get herself to sleep.  I think that it worked in her favor because she was so tired in the morning that she forgot to ask about breakfast and water.  She was pretty relaxed going back to surgery (a little medicine helped with that too).  

Cuddles under a warm blanket with mom.

We arrived at the hospital a little after 6 am and they took ChinaBean back to surgery around 8 am.  We were in the waiting room for about 5 hours or so until we were called upstairs to see her.  Several visitors came to visit, both friends from our time in Illinois and Suzhou, as well as support from the Grandmas and Grandpas.  

Can you tell they're related?

ChinaBean's first night went well.  She had some nice long stretches of sleep and the nurses kept on-top of the pain.  Her first day post-surgery we got ChinaBean up and sitting in the chair and taking a few steps.  She has started eating and she will be on a low-fat diet until she is discharged.

We had a brush with local fame yesterday.  Julie K (http://juliekmusic.com), a local singer and performer, was at the hospital. The Child Life Specialist brought her to our room for a private concert.  Thanks for stopping by Julie K!

Thank you for all of the cards, texts, messages and videos!  We have enjoyed looking at them.  We're still working on getting a good smile from ChinaBean and it's nice to have things to cheer her on.