After spending 26 nights in the hospital for Mia's Fontan, we have been home almost 2 weeks. I feel like I can finally breathe a sigh of relief and say that Mia's Fontan was a success. We expected our hospital stay to be 7-10 days. It was triple that. On Monday I took Mia to Denver for her post-op appointment. We started out with a chest x-ray, followed by a clinic visit. I was most nervous about the chest x-ray because if any of the fluid we waited nearly 4 weeks to stop draining had re-accumulated, we would've been readmitted to the hospital. The x-ray was clear of any fluid build up. Thank goodness.
Mia is amazing. The things she had to go through during our stay in the hospital are things that most adults never have to experience. For the first 2 weeks we were there, I really didn't know if I'd see my baby girl smile again. I didn't know if I'd see her get out of her bed and not scream at the top of her lungs. Then one day, I don't know how or why, she smiled, got out of bed, and started walking around again. It was that sudden of a change.
While Mia's torso may still look like a battle field, you'd never know she had open heart surgery and was in the hospital that long by looking at her. Her lips and feet are more pink that I have ever seen them and she's happy. Her oxygen sats are in the low 90's (without any oxygen by nose), which I never thought would be a possibility, let alone reality.
I know that along the path of Mia's hospital stay, my husband and I updated on Facebook. While many of those updates told the highlights of what was happening, it was far from being the entire story. I kept daily notes of what went on, not only to ensure that Mia was able to collect her Beads of Courage, but also to remember.
One day I would like to write the story of Mia's Fontan from my perspective. Right now, I'm not ready. Right now I just want to enjoy being home with all four of us under one roof. And I want to continue to be amazed by my daughter every single day.
