Layla's last surgery

Here is some pics of Layla's last surgery. She had to have her gum line fixed as she still had a hole in it and could still dribble juice out her nose (which at times she thought was cool :)). In order to fix this they had to take a piece of her bone out of her hip and graft it into her mouth. The pics make it look like she was really sore, but she never once complained of pain in her face, however she had excruciating pain in her hip and she wouldn' t walk. The surgery was suppose to be a one night stay and it turned to 3. I was so worried because she wouldn't move, talk, or smile at us after the first couple of hours out of PACU. I felt like she was mad at us for putting her through that. When people taking care of you find out your in health care, you get somewhat abandoned. I think it's because they think you really know what's going on. I really had no clue. Every surgical procedure is different and I really didn't know what was to be expected. The nurses just let her lay in bed and I kept asking them to try and coax her out but they kept telling me it would be up to her when she did it. ....what? really? After a couple of days of that I told Greg we were going to have to give her some tough love and make her get out of the bed, even though there would be tears. We explained to her that if she didn't move then we were never going to get to go home and she was going to get a really bad sickness in her chest. She had already been really rattling when she was breathing, so I was worried.  She really wanted to ride in the wheelchair so we told her she could but that she would have to take the 4 steps to get to it. She never, not even once talked to us in 3 days. She would just stare at us with those big brown eyes. It was heart wrenching. She did end up getting up in the wheelchair and realizing it wasn't quite as fun as she had expected so she didn't stay up for long, but at least it was something. The last day we were there the tech came in and told Layla she needed to walk 4 times then she would get to go home. She made 4 boxes on the wipe off board for her to check each time she did it. Layla liked this idea. She decided each time she walked she would draw a picture instead. It was a great idea, that worked. We got to go home later that day. We set up a mattress in our front room and she got to be in the center of everything. She did so much better after we got home. It is amazing to look at these pics and see all the swelling and how fast it went away. It's also amazing about how much that little hole made a difference. Through orthodontics her face has taken on a whole different shape. It's quite subtle if you haven't really looked, but with her side by side photos, I just can't believe how much each step has changed. It's weird to me because I never see how anything is changing until I really look at the pics. She has always been our beautiful girl.