Before & After Surgery...

Above is right before surgery... below is about 4 weeks later. She's not as dusky (purple) as before.

Above are her hands right before & below are her hands right after. This was something that was amazing to me.

Feet right before... & below is after.
There have been changes that can't be seen in one moment. My favorite is that she can keep up with her cousin now. It took a little while for her to realize that she could but now she goes non-stop. Before surgery she would be able to play with him for 15 minutes or so & then would take a break, like sit down to look at a book or would go find an adult to seek sanctuary. But now I find her running in circles & jumping & being able to keep up with the energizer bunny.
Some people have even commented that she seems to be happier. I think that they are right! She sings all the time & is really into pretend play. It's cute because she is now disciplining her dolls (using the same words I do) puts them to bed & feeds them their dinner.
Currently we are slowly being weened off of her are surgery medicines (diuretics). So this is exciting. We are slowly going to be taken off so that we avoid fluid building up in her lungs, which is a common side effect of this last surgery. We are also on a low fat diet which means no butter, no oil & no cheese, basically less than 3 grams of fat per serving. Have you ever read the nutritional labels on food?... yeah there's not a lot that she can have right now. We are surviving pretty well. I have found several low fat recipes that are actually pretty good. We also use butter substitutes that are... decent. We found 1 non-fat cheese that Payton seems to tolerate. We are hoping to only be on this low fat diet for another couple of months.

The last new medication we are on is Coumidin, which is a heavy duty blood thinner. This adds a whole new level of 'joy' to our lives. We will probably be on this for the next year. We have to pay attention to any bumps & bruises that she gets, which she gets so much easier now & have to get regular blood tests to monitor her levels. Also if she falls & hits her head hard then it's off to the emergency room for us for a head scan. Yeah imagine explaining to her that she has to stay still while sitting inside a machine that makes noise, lets just pray that is never nessecary! Before surgery she was very careful but I'm realizing now that was because she really didn't have the energy to climb, jump, rough house & twirl. Twirling in the hallway is how she got her first big bruise that was right smack dab on her cheek. It's faded in this picture but you can still see it on her left cheek.
We are no longer on 'quarantine' which is great news. We still need to be careful about being around kids who are sick just because of cold & flu season. She will start going to Sunbeams as soon as her Dr. says the season is over. We were authorized to have another round of RSV shots so that was a relief. So hopefully you guys will see us around more often.

I realized that I hadn't done a post like this in a long time & since we are ready to be 'reintroduced' into the world we thought that we would let you know about what's going on. I'm sure I've missed something so if I did then comment & I'll fill you in. We are sad to have missed out on so much fun with our friends but are glad that is behind us now.