Surgery and Home

I am so sorry for the time it took me to get around to posting this!  I found it easy and convenient in the hospital to post updates on facebook and sort of let blogging slide.  As most of you know Catherine had surgery Friday June 7th at Johns Hopkins to lengthen the rod in her rib cage which is supposed to spread her thoracic cavity to accomodate her lung growth.  It was a LONG day as we didn't have to arrive until 11 am (nothing to eat or drink after midnight the night before, of course!) and they didn;t take her to surgery until 2:30 pm that afternoon!  Ugghhh!  She was in great spirits despite being very hungry and thirsty, joking with the nurses and doctors and giving lots of toothless grins!  Surgery went well, although it was a bit more involved than we had originally thought it would be; they installed a second rod to stabilize the first as well as cut through several ribs which had re-fused.  By 6:30 pm she was in recovery and asking for juice, looking much more herself than I remember after her first two surgeries.  What a blessing!  Over the next 24 hours, we were able to wean her from the morphine pump and get her on oral codeine so she could actually go home.  Another HUGE blessing that she only had to spend one night in the hospital!  She has been home several days now, and despite some rough moments, she has done extremely well for the most part!  We cannot thank our friends and family enough for all their prayers and positive thoughts which have been sent our way!