Michigan Memories

   I have been thinking a lot about our time in Michigan lately, as the weather very slowly starts getting colder here in Florida. We had a few mornings that were 62 degrees when I left for work and two days so far have stayed around 70 even in the afternoon! Nowhere near what we had to layer up for in Ann Arbor, but I keep thinking about all of the good times we had during those tough 73 days. We were there for The Big Surgery that Emma had on December 27th, 2017 to get the 3D airway splints that saved her life. There aren't any pictures in that post, but I did just had a bunch to the Recovery Detours post. Last week I read all of the Michigan posts from December, January, and February and I am so glad that I wrote all of that because there was still some stuff that I forgot about!
   The other day while Michael and I were giving Emma a bath, I was talking to Michael about the show The 100 that we watch and I found out that the first four seasons apparently take place within one year, rather than each season being one year like most shows. Even though it's just futuristic fiction, I said to Michael, "I can't believe that was only a year for all of that? With all of the injuries and cuts and fighting and everything they went through. How could they have lived through all of that?!" Michael gave me a deadpan look and pointed to Emma. She had a bunch of surgeries and so many tubes have been put into her body, and she was only six months old when all of that happened! And she has dwarfism and Meier-Gorlin syndrome, so she was half of the size of an average six month old!!
   I posted a bunch of pictures after we got back from Michigan (Part 1 here and Part 2 here), but I was surprised that there were still so many that I had not posted, especially considering how many I took, so I'm putting them in here. I am not going to go into a lot of detail since I already wrote about everything while we were in Michigan. Please go back and read it all to understand what we went through as a family and how strong and brave Baby Emma really is.

   We arrived before Christmas and the following day spent time walking around the hospital. It was two hospitals attached by a long hallway, so we did some exploring. There was a sign on the window of the Children's Hospital lobby saying we could write remembrance of those we had lost. I drew a picture remembering Shrimp, the tiny baby I miscarried before later getting pregnant with Emma.

   Above are the views from the window by the elevators (the PICU was on the 10th floor) and the view from her first window - she switched rooms twice so they could deep clean once a month - one of the days that it snowed several inches. I like when it snowed during the day so I could watch it or brave the wind and let the snow fall on my face like nails. Usually it snowed overnight.

 December 24th: (below) doing oral care with Emma, using the brush to stimulate her gums.

   Sometime shortly after the surgery: Maybe New Years Eve, after the IV fluid swelling went down and she was almost back to being a little 9 pound baby. The plastic piece over her body was to help keep the area clean even though she also had gauze and tape over the healing chest incision.

   Directly behind the hospital is a Peony Garden, but of course we never got to see any of the pretty flowers as we were there in the winter. It was a fun place to walk through and we went there often, being very careful when going down the steps to get to the mostly frozen river. One day we saw a swan walking through the river and we watched it for a while and then Michael ate a snowball!

   It took me a few weeks to come up with the bright idea to order scrapbook paper so I could do something fun and creative to keep me busy in the hospital, aside from just watching TV all of the time.
My paper, sticker, and washi tape shipment arrived on January 15th! I hadn't made scrapbook cards and collages in a while so I was in the groove and made a ton. Probably at least 30 over the next five weeks before we were able to go back to Orlando. I displayed a handful of them on her hospital room door (which was just a huge piece of glass) so everyone could see them as they walked by. I mailed a bunch of the other ones off to my friends and family members. I printed the pictures from a nearby CVS.

   One day a surprise Edible Arrangement (with a toy bear for Emma) arrived at the Ronald McDonald House from my supervisor and co-workers. I thought that was so nice of them to do that for us. We quickly ate the fruit and then I sent them this photo with my bushel of kale! They often talk about my great metabolism and how healthy I eat, but we ate a lot of "room service" ice cream and peanut M&Ms from the vending machine while we were in the PICU! Haha.

   February 11th, 13th & 15th: the days of getting phone calls at 4am about our daughter needing emergency chest tubes and pericardial drains put in due to having a pneumo. (Pneumothorax = collapsed lung) This occurred when the fistulas in her trachea let air into her chest and that air collected around her lungs causing it to collapse a couple times. Thank you, God that it never affected her heart like they were worried about.

The orange under her arm is betadine, not blood. But in the next picture, yes, it is blood. :(   

   When I look at these pictures- especially the ones where she's smiling!- I wonder how I can ever complain about so many little insignificant things. Why do I let dumb stuff bother me while our sweet baby lays there and contently endures the necessary "medical abuse"? 

   February 20th: The day before we flew home they had to put a new PICC line in. For some reason that doctor thought it would be easier to go through her shoulder, but it didn't work and they were able to place it in the regular spot in her arm. I hated that shoulder gash though. I called it her zombie bite. I noticed last night that the scar is almost completely gone now.

   Sorry to end this post on a sad photo, but I think it is important to be honest about her journey. I wonder if Emma will ever remember all of this happening to her, or what her reaction will be when we show her the photos when she is older. I hope she also feels as brave and strong as we know she is. I want her to know that she is our hero and she can do anything!
   I also wrote about our trip of flying back to Orlando/ Winnie Palmer hospital earlier this year. You can read about that in the Back in Orlando post. I am still amazed with how much she went through and survived, since the word "un-survivable" was used too often as a precaution in conversations with the doctors. She is a tough cookie! In fact her names mean "Whole, complete. Fireborn".  :)