Harlie's happy and doing well.

Well, Harlie is doing much better. Her belly is back to normal. And you would not know that she had surgery by the way she acts. She doesn’t seem sore at all, which I find very surprising. There are five incisions on her belly and he used glue, instead of stitches, which is good. The glue will eventually wear off. I will download the pics tomorrow (I hope). I want to show you her mickey button. I think I am going to like it for the most part. But it is taking some time and trial and error to learn what works. It definitely requires more accessories to give her water and meds, which isn’t great. But it does have one feature that I love. It doesn’t allow stomach contents to leak OUT of her stomach. So, at least what goes in, stays in (whereas her peg tube, if it came open, stuff would leak out).

The mickey button stays in with a balloon and eventually the stomach acid will pop the balloon, so we’ll have to change it every three months. Hopefully that will avoid it popping during the night (for example) in which case stuff would certainly leak out then! Yes, WE will change it, not the docs. Yuck. Not looking forward to doing that. But, like everything else, will probably be nothing after some practice.

As far as the surgery’s success…so far so good. I really don’t want to talk about it – afraid I’ll jinx it. But, it sure has been a nice few days for all of us around here. And we go through a lot less bibs, that’s for sure. I am so anxious to see how her not vomiting affects her weight gain. It just seems to me that she’ll have to gain some – she’s not losing much of her food everyday. Certainly that has to make a huge difference.

Well, that’s it for tonight. Hopefully I’ll have the pics for you tomorrow. Thanks for all your comments and e-mails this past week. I really appreciated the encouragement. Even though she was in the hospital for only two nights and three days, it seemed like an eternity. I joke that I have post traumatic stress from last year’s two month stay. But I do think that knowing that we have to do this again in two weeks made it worse. Either way, I really appreciated the support, so thank you!

Take care,
Christy