Saturday, June 26, 2010

Miss Banana's Heart Day

June 26th is holiday.  Maybe not for the rest of you, but to us, June 26th is the day we celebrate the anniversary of Miss B's open heart surgery.  The day we celebrate that she is alive and well.  She is now a one-year-open-heart-surgery survivor.  AMAZING.  I am so grateful for modern medicine and for Dr. HeartSurgeon for making it possible for our little lady to be around to light up our lives like she does.  She is our little miracle baby. 
As I've been reflecting on this day last year, I remember feeling like June 26th was the day that the calendar stopped.  I couldn't really imagine what life would be like after that day--some parents of kids with congenital heart defects spent a few days in the hospital after surgery.  Some spent  months.  Some had children that didn't make it out of surgery.  Or that had serious complications during recovery that took their child.  I remember wondering which group we'd be in and that no matter which group it was--our lives would never be the same. 

We literally had to place our child's life into someone else's hands and then trust the surgeon and Heavenly Father that the best would happen.  We had to sign papers that said we knew that our child could die from the procedure.  We had to watch them wheel her away on the hospital bed, oblivious to what would happen next.  We had to wait and wait and wait as the surgery took place--the nurses came in and updated us occasionally...but there were long stretches where we did just about anything we could think of to keep our minds occupied so we didn't go crazy with worry.  We had to wait after they moved her into the PICU for them to get her body calmed down.  We had to walk in and see her intubated, covered in wires and drainage tubes filled with blood.

But then we got to see her recover.  The first few days seemed to drag on forever, but by day four post-op, she was ready to head home with only Tylenol as a pain reliever.  Once home, she really started to shine.  With a her heart pumping correctly, she was finally able to eat and gain weight.  She gained strenghth and started rolling, laughing, eating, crawling, and now, even pulling to stand.  Each of those accomplishments is a miracle.  An absolute miracle.

What a blessing that her surgery went so well.  Each day, I thank my Heavenly Father for her little life.  I am so grateful for her and for a loving God that knew how much I needed her and allowed her to stay on Earth with us.

We celebrated today with a Heart Day party.  Some friends, some heart-healthy food (well, except for the heart-cake!) played some heart games.  (No pictures of the party because it was a little wild, but Miss B wore her cute heart dress, we decorated in red and any other heart decoration I could find.  T-Man and Fearless had a lot of fun with it!)  We took a few pictures afterwards, just so we could see how much she's changed since this day last year. 

Amazing. 

Really, amazing.

Happy Heart Day, Miss B.

10 comments:

katielovie said...

That was beautiful Sister Roberts :)

Brad, Emily, Mya said...

She is so stinkin' cute and always has the biggest smile in pictures. She looks like she had a good time at the party; what a fun idea. P.S. Carrie, you are such a good writer (I think I've told you this before). You have a way with words and I think if you ever get a spare moment you should write a book. Take care; miss you guys.

Lindsey said...

That is so awesome. What a beautiful little girl.

ds.mama said...

Happy Heart Day beautiful girl!

Sasha@ Blyssfulhealth said...

Happy Heart Day pretty girl. What a beauty she is. Love the pics. What a milestone it is, isn't it?

Emily said...

Happy Heart Day cutie!

Courtney said...

Love it! What a huge blessing she has been to your family. Happy Heart Day Miss B!!!!!

Anonymous said...

Oh a very belated happy heart day to Miss Banana! I really needed to see this- we just had our card exam today and no change in Ms Abigail's VSD- if all continues as is- which most likely it will we'll be going in for surgery in 2 years. It makes me want to start celebrating her little heart now. P.S- do you know Anna Banana Pants? All of a sudden it struck me that there were 2 banana gals out there!

annabananapants.blogspot.com

kecia said...

Love the idea of celebrating a heart day and love her little heart dress! I cried through this whole post because I can't begin to imagine how hard this would have been...we didn't have to do this with Bree but my sister in law has to do it next week with her 4 month old little girl with DS and we are all so nervous and these feelings are real to our family right now! What a miracle it truely is!!

kecia said...

Love the idea of celebrating a heart day and love her little heart dress! I cried through this whole post because I can't begin to imagine how hard this would have been...we didn't have to do this with Bree but my sister in law has to do it next week with her 4 month old little girl with DS and we are all so nervous and these feelings are real to our family right now! What a miracle it truely is!!

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