Talia a week after surgery

I hope this isn't too dark to see anything. Talia's been looking awfully pale since returning from the hospital, probably from the blood loss during surgery. But as you can see, she hasn't exactly slowed down much.

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Another bedtime report

Tonight's exchange as I was putting Zeke to bed:

Z.: Daddy, what's a barton?
Me: Um, I don't know.
Z. (reflectively): I don't know either. I was just ... saying something. Maybe it's a little ... thing. Or a little toy. I don't know.

Heh. I have no idea what he was thinking of.

Healing

This looks awful, but if you saw it on Monday, this looks like a near-miraculous transformation. The incision, so far, is healing up fast & very cleanly.

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Talia's third day in the hospital: a few photos

These are from Wednesday. You can see that her face is a little puffy. The swelling is mostly gone by now.

A note on Utterz.com

Over the past couple of days, I've been posting almost everything to this blog using a service I just discovered, called Utterz. (I find it a little embarrassing to say the name, but that's the only drawback I've discovered.) Anyone who's reading this and wants a painless way to run a mobile blog ought to check it out. You can post anything you want from your cell phone or from the website -- text, photos, video, or phoned-in audio -- to a mobile blog on the Utterz site (mine is here). Utterz will then re-post your updates to a blog, to Facebook, to Twitter, or to any site where you can embed a bit of Flash code.

Anyhow, though, I was pretty impressed by the service, but it also turns out that there's a strong community around the site as well. A couple of people have been following Talia's story over the past couple of days and have posted encouraging messages of support for her (and for the rest of us). I logged on tonight, and look what I found:

It's a little audio-and-photo message to Talia and her folks (us) wishing her a good recovery, from the good people who run the Utterz website. (Click the orange triangle to hear the audio; click here for a larger version of the photo.) I couldn't believe it. I was totally bowled over. Anyhow, thought I'd share that. The internet can actually be very cool sometimes.

Update: Talia & the rest of us

Everyone's home from the hospital now. Mary (my mother) is staying with us. Things are far from being back to normal, but they seem to be progressing in that direction. Talia's very happy to be home, but still not really comfortable; she wolfed down a lot of solid food at dinnertime (which she's had very little of in the last three days) and then promptly threw it all up again. Heather's now trying to get her to sleep, and she's complaining a lot. Zeke is kind of freaked out by the whole situation. He was overjoyed to see his mother after four days, of course, and it was truly charming to watch how happy he and Talia were to be reunited. Talia got all worked up when she saw him and started shouting and putting her hands out to him, and he came over and kissed her. He keeps looking at the incision and asking, "Why does Tally have a line on her head?" (My answer is, "That's where the doctors were fixing her head.") Zeke however does not want to be alone at all; he has been putting up an incredible fight at bedtime and acting very clingy, whiny and cranky (unusual for him). Anyhow, as someone remarked to me, it seems as though we've sort of all been running on adrenaline over the past two weeks, and now reality's about to set in. I have to return to my classes tomorrow morning. Heather's taking the next week off. And, well, that's about where things stand right now.

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Talia's home!

Here's Talia playing after being home for about ninety minutes. She's really tired but has to be all into everything before she can rest. Especially since her big brother isn't home yet.

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Talia sleeping on her father

She's doing much better today. Eating more, more active, less pain, incision healing fast. Pulse is still elevated, though, which has them a little mystified.

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With Zeke at the doctor's

Zeke's had a cough for the part few days. I'm having him seen now. Just in case he needed antibiotics... He doesn't, it turns out.

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Photos: Talia and Heather in the hospital

More here.

Update: Talia's recovery, day 1

Talia has a ways to go before she's fully recovered but she is looking really good. When I got there at 11 a.m. this morning her color was great, she was active, looking around, acting playful, etc., even trying to say a few words and laugh. She spent most of the day sleeping. She's having formula to eat, not a lot, but she's not throwing up either. She surprised the nurses by not needing another blood transfusion or more Fentanyl. The incision isn't bleeding at all. She's looking a little puffy around the face though, which means she might swell up a lot tomorrow, and she still seems fairly uncomfortable. So, we'll see how it goes. So far, though, the recovery's looking great.

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A few hospital photos

More here.

Here's the email update I just sent out...

I sent this to a bunch of friends, family, students and colleagues.

Hello again –

Talia, my daughter, finished her surgery this afternoon at around five p.m. She is going to be at Children’s Hospital at least through the end of Wednesday, probably Thursday. The surgery went fine with no complications. The surgeon kept telling us that he thought he had done a fabulous job and that she is even cuter now than she was before. Her head definitely looks different. For the moment she is very uncomfortable and not keeping food down, but I understand that’s more or less normal.

Heather, Zeke and I have received an tremendous amount of support from friends, family, students and colleagues, and I hope to be able to thank all of you individually in the coming days. For the moment, though, I’ll just say: thank you all. I appreciate it.

Nathan

I'll be going back to the hospital tomorrow. Zeke had a good afternoon with his Grammy. I plan to drop him off at daycare in the morning.

Leaving the hospital

Update: Talia's sleeping peacefully and I'm heading good for the night. H. is staying.

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Reconstruction phase of surgery

So far, so good, though it sounds like she's lost an awful lot of blood.

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First incision

They made the first incision into Talia's skull about half an hour ago. So far, so good.

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Update: Talia is under anesthesi

She's being prepped for surgery. We'll know more in half an hour.

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