ICU for now

Still happy before surgery

Smiling with the NG tube during bowel prep.

Puffy, sleepy, and ready for surgery

Anara went into surgery yesterday around 8:00am and came out a little after 10:00pm. We got to see her in recovery about 11:30pm and followed her to her room in ICU. Nate spent last night with her in the ICU room. He said that she cried off and on and he spent time at her bedside singing and talking to her.

Her orthopedic surgeon and urologist have both checked in on her and say that she is doing great. She wakes up periodically and cries or says "moey" (more), "aw-doo" (all done) or "otay" (okay). She is currently on Tylenol and morphine and still has an epidural for pain control at the site. She will lose the epidural pain control tomorrow and start with some strong oral/IV pain meds.

I went home and slept last night from about 2:00am to 9:00am and I am feeling great today. We still have two grandmas (and one grandpa) here so they can stay at the hospital if we need them. We were surrounded by family and friends yesterday and that helped immensely to distract us and break up the day. Thank you so much for your prayers, encouragement, and love--we are blessed to have such great family and friends. Thanks to everyone who spent time with us in the hospital yesterday.

We did have one other distraction yesterday. Barney the Dinosaur is making a 20 city tour and picked our hospital for one of his performances. I think maybe the urologist knew Barney would be here yesterday and picked the date so that Violet would have fun. ;) So far Violet has benefited with snacks, McDonalds, chocolate milk, Barney, craft times, gifts and plenty of people to play with. She is definitely getting all the perks.

Cousin Noble waiting patiently during surgery ;)

Aunt Nicole and Violet hanging out in the hallway

Our city's mayor introducing Barney

Barney's performance

She said she wasn't going to be shy,
but who isn't afraid of a big, purple dinosaur

We have a couple pictures of what Anara looks like now and I will post those as soon as I can get them to a computer. It is a little shocking to see, but everyone says she is doing really well.