Funny kids

So Sharkey left today. JP flew in from Philadelphia so that she wouldn't have to drive all the way home by herself. And knowing her, she would have fallen asleep while driving long before she hit the Minnesota/Wisconsin border. Alex, Catherine and I drove to the airport as well, so that we could see JP for a couple of minutes before they had to take off.

As usual, Alex had a tough time telling them goodbye. I think this time was especially difficult because Sharkey stayed with us so long, and we were getting used to having her and Maggie around. Quite a few tears were shed by him, which of course, resulted in tears from Sharkey.

We saw them off, then headed home. About a mile from the airport, while Alex was still pretty upset, it started to rain lightly. Alex said, "I think Mother Nature is mocking me!" We all had a much needed laugh at that.

Not a minute later, Catherine said, "Dang! I was gonna ask JP for fifty bucks!" I think he may have spoiled her a bit too much at the Cheese Festival a couple weeks ago.

Surgery update

Just a quick post to give you an update on Catherine's surgery. We got to the hospital about 5:45am and got her checked in. We had to wait around a little while with a bunch of others who were scheduled for surgery as well. There were lots of little kids, and even a few infants. I can't imagine being those parents. So we finally got called back to the little room where they were going to have her get changed and get everything prepared. Instead of giving her one of those horrible gowns to wear, they gave her pants and a shirt, so that was nice.



















You can see that she was in pretty good spirits. She was really amazing the whole time--she was really brave. She did have to fight back tears a few times, but she was so great. There was some patient advocate person who came to check up on her, and she brought in surgical caps for the 3 stuffed animals that Catherine had with her.















When it was time for her to head into the operating room, they let me go along with her. I had to dress in the whole surgical get-up--hat, mask, booties, jumpsuit. We made our way into the operating room, and that was by far the worst part. She started to fight it when they went to put the mask over her face to put her to sleep. So she was crying and trying to push it away and yelling. Of course, I was also bawling at this point as well--I hated seeing her so scared. After about 90 minutes, the surgeon came to the waiting room to let us know that the surgery went great, and they didn't run into anything unusual. There was a possibility that they might have to put a shunt in if the cyst didn't drain very well by itself, but luckily, they didn't have to resort to that. Jason and I were able to see her shortly after that. She was still very groggy, but she opened her eyes and the first word out of her mouth was a very weak "Mommy." She never calls me mommy anymore, so that made me a little teary as well. She started to cry and when I asked her why she was crying, she let out a pathetic little, "I don't know." Must have been all the drugs.

We were originally told that she'd be in the hospital for 2 days, but we were actually home by about noon today. She's been eating soup, soda crackers and fruit, and has just been laying on the couch resting. Her head has been hurting her a little, but she's been taking Tylenol for that. She's still a little emotional, but I guess that's what happens when you get all drugged up, get your head drilled into, and then have nurses wake you up every hour to shine a flashlight in your eyes.

We'll take the bandages off tomorrow, and she can shower and wash her hair on Sunday. (She said I can't blog the pictures of her with the bandages on her head, so I won't. But I'll post them on Flickr. What? It's not my blog!) I think she'll be as good as new in no time. Thank you all for the prayers, good thoughts, emails, and presents. It's wonderful to know there are such wonderful people out there who care and take the time to check on us.

And now it's bedtime. I've been awake way too long in the last 2 days.