Sunday March 17, 2019

We are discharged home!!💜💜 we came home yesterday. Ava had a really good last couple days. She began to poop, eat and drink. Landon and I have never been so excited to see a dirty diaper haha. Her incision is healing nicely. They took the staples out of her large incision. She has one large vertical incision and a smaller horizontal incision where her ostomy stoma was. She’s managing well with Tylenol. She’s such a tough little girl handling pain. She already has a terrible diaper rash and open sores to her bottom as it is not used to poop. This was expected and hopefully will get better with time. As soon as we got home Ava had a big nap and has been cruising around. We have to try and encourage her to rest, extremely hard with a toddler haha. She had some withdrawals from the narcotics and separation anxiety, will take it day by day. Just glad to be home ❤️.

Her surgeon was so impressed how well she recovered. We will have to monitor her poops to make sure she doesn’t get constipated. He explained that because of all her scar tissue in her bottom where it dehiscence opened last year, it will cause more constriction and difficult to naturally dilate because scar tissue is so tough. She may need another surgery if this becomes a problem. Continence may be an issue too he explained but we won’t know this until she is potty trained. We will take it as it comes. One thing at a time. Beyond thankful to overcome this major hurdle and have this surgery be a success. We start follow up appointments this week.

It is so nice to be in our house together as a family. Looking back at this week, we think how did we get through that? We have said that after each surgery and admission.. and we just do it. It’s like survival mode. Ava’s strength and determination amazes us. She has gone through an unbelievable amount of operations that any person should in a lifetime. Her resilience is incredible. Seeing our little girl play, smile, and giggle just melts our hearts and helps heal all the scary things we have gone through as a family. We thank everyone for reaching out to us with the kind words and prayers for Ava. We have an amazing support system. 💜💜

her 2019 Stollery shirt