Sleeping Peacefully

Zoe is sleeping peacefully (which she is doing a lot of understandably), so I'm going to take a moment to write. When I arrived at the hospital this morning (dad had the night shift), Zoe popped her eyes open as soon as she heard my voice and gave me a great big smile! I've been on a high ever since! She's looking even better today than she did yesterday. Very lethargic and pale from blood loss, but tuned in when awake. The nurse had her up and sitting in a chair next to her bed for 30 minutes this morning. She didn't like being moved, but once she was settled she did great. I took a picture of her while she was sitting, and asked her if she would like to see what she looks like in her halo. She said yes, and when she saw herself she said "I look like an astronaut." I thought that was wonderful! Kristina and I both latched onto that and we talked about how fun it would be to be a real astronaut exploring the stars. She was smiling, and I was relieved that her first view of it went so well. Kids are so tolerant...it's us adults that freak out about the little things that we like to make bigger than they really are.


Her dressing was removed from her wound today as well. The wound is very long, but the stitches are small, and it looks exactly as it should. I can tell that Zoe was treated with the greatest care during her surgery which is very reassuring to me. There is even a mystery person that beautifully braided her hair away from the incision site to minimize how much needed to be shaved. I speculate that it was one of the young male anesthesiologists.

There has been another change in plans. Dr. Sekhar now wants to have Dr. Avellino perform only part of the C spine surgery, and then the rest later in conjunction with the surgery to remove the rest of the tumor. Dr. Sekhar needs to have access to part of the area that Dr. Avellino will be working in, and this will allow him to perform the final surgery earlier, as well as cut down on her recovery time. There may be more to it than this, but Dr. Sekhar is a man of few words. I trust him, and know that he has Zoe's best interests at heart. When I know more I'll post it. A wonderful day so far.

Colleen