Recovering at Home

Chayah is two and a half weeks post surgery and she feels much ,much better. Until a few days ago pain was a BIG issue. Any smiles we saw were only temporary pastes for pictures. As you can see both little girls are practicing their newly acquired nursing skills. Their patients never, ever complain! Yes, putting casts on dollies and giving meds and shots to any willing victim are the new fun thing at our house :)
On Friday, we travel back to Chicago for Chayah's next checkup and x-rays. We hope to find out that her bones are healing as they should. Her right lower leg bones are similar to that of someone with OI (brittle bone disease). The first doctor we saw after we came home from China suggested that we should amputate her leg at the knee to give her a better quality of life....we prayed, talked with other doctors and decided we had to at least attempt to save her leg -with the irreplaceable help of our Shriner's doctors. The struggle is not over yet- little Chayah has a long way (years!) to go. She has been so brave and patient- as long as we can keep her tummy filled with watermelon and strawberries! All the weight she gained in her first seven weeks home- six pounds- has almost all been lost since surgery. I shudder to think how thin she would be if she had not put on those pounds.
~Mom