Love Like Crazy: Update on Maggie

I stole this post from my sil's blog--I was just going to write a little update, but this entry is so entertaining I decided to share it.

Holy Crap! We're home!

Once again… this is Merritt at the helm of the blog. I know that Mandee is already shaking her head at me because I put “crap” in the title of the post. In fact, she is trying to get me and Sammy to stop saying “Holy Crap” all together. She says that it just doesn’t sound very good. She thinks we should say “Holy Frijoles” or “Holy Guacamole” or “Holy (Place your other Mexican food of choice here)”. I’m sorry, saying “Holy Crap” is just very satisfying and it is much less offensive than other phrases that I could use. I’ll leave it at that. Well… she is too pooped to blog, so she’ll have to take what she gets. I just realized that I said pooped, too. I promise that I don’t have a fascination with bodily functions, even though I do plan on talking about Maggie’s pending bowel movements later on.

Okay… as we were preparing for Maggie’s surgery, they had told us to prepare for a 7-10 day stay in the hospital. Almost exactly 3 days to the hour after her surgery started, we left the hospital. Holy Crap! We were discharged a little after noon on Saturday, but didn’t want to put Maggie through the stress of traveling all of the way home the same day. We decided to stay one more night in Salt Lake in that beautiful home that my uncle and aunt were so kind to let us use. Alex and Sam came with us, because they really missed their little sister. Mema and Papa came as well. They took Alex and Sam to Hogle Zoo for the afternoon so that Me, Mandee and Maggie could rest at the house. We just took things easy for the rest of the afternoon. We had been a little concerned about getting some food into Maggie, because she hadn’t eaten well at the hospital. We made an emergency trip to the McDonald’s around the corner. We got her some chicken nuggets, which she quickly turned her nose up at. Luckily enough, she caught a whiff of Mandee’s quarter pounder. Our dainty little girl went absolutely “ape” on the cheeseburger. A burp and an toot later and she was ready for some drugs and a nap.

We were so completely surprised to have Maggie sent home from the hospital so soon. We knew that the 7-10 day stay was probably the worst case scenario, but our 3 day stint absolutely blew us away. Maggie came through her surgery so great. We know that she was blessed. Before she was discharged, the NP who had taken care of her came to check on her. She told Mandee that Maggie had been the talk of the hospital this morning. Apparently, even though she was grumpy, gross and very crusty looking, she had worked her way into the hearts of quite a few of the NP’s, nurses and technicians. When the technicians would come in to take her vitals, she would blow them kisses goodbye. We think she is the cutest little toot out there, but we also know that we are biased. It is good to hear that someone else thinks she is cute beyond belief.

Maggie was also really cute when me and the boys made it to the hospital this morning. You would have thought that she hadn’t seen us for months. She immediately demanded that we take for a walk around the halls. Of course, she didn’t want to be dressed, especially not her socks. So there we were… Maggie in her skivvies and bare feet… dragging her Daddy around the halls of the hospital. I shudder to think what was all over her feet.

She has been running all of the place ever since we got her out of the hospital. It is hard to believe that just a few short days ago she had her chest cracked open and major surgery on her heart. She is taking the pain quite well. Because she is always running around like a little drunk monkey, she has fell quite a few times. With very recently split ribs, you would think that this would upset her. She has taken the falls in stride. However, if you dare to pat her on the head or the bum, she immediately begins to rub them and say “OOOWWW… OOOWWW”. We are raising a little drama queen.

Now… to the important stuff. We are waiting for a critical event in Maggie’s post surgical life… the first poop. Maggie didn’t eat hardly anything in the hospital, so her system was somewhat empty. Normally, the doctors prefer that the first “deposit” comes before you leave the hospital. Maggie has been eating like a starved rabid pig ever since she was discharged (that is, when she isn’t running around like a drunk monkey). She has eaten french fries, chicken nuggets, a quarter pounder, chicken alfredo, lasagna, Olive Garden salad (okay, how many two year olds like Olive Garden salad… that just seems a little strange to me), Mike and Ikes, dutch oven cake…. so an an so forth. I just realized that the list of her recent food consumption makes us sound like horrible parents. I promise that we normally feed them good food. Anyway, after seeing what has entered her little belly in this relatively short amount of time, we are starting to be a little concerned about the pending bowel event. It should be epic. Pray for us.

Now, enough foolishness. We officially made it home today. You could tell that Maggie was very excited to be back at her home. Before the surgery, we were very concerned about how it would affect her emotional state. She has come so far in the past few months and we didn’t want her to take a step backwards. She seems to have picked up right were she left off and we are so grateful.

This is Maggie enjoying a bowl full of apples (the first food she actually wanted) 2 minutes before she ralphed them up.

The only reason this picture is in here is because Sammy is freaking cute. Notice who is in the wheelchair? I’ll give you a hint: it’s not the one who just had open heart surgery. P1070785 - Copy