I arrived yesterday and was very relieved to see that Ella is in pretty good shape. I can’t see much aesthetic improvement because by the time I saw Ella yesterday afternoon, her cheek was big again due to the swelling. That’s to be expected. What surprised me is how ‘normal’ Ella is acting. Full of energy and happy, as usual. I took her on a trip around the hospital in the stroller this morning and she loved it. She was excited as soon as we got down to the lobby with arms flailing and rocking, kicking her legs — the usual Ella excited mode. Now the problem is keeping her entertained. Also, whenever I leave the room for a second she starts to whine about being left alone. Right now she’s asleep so I went down the hall to the family center to use the internet. Yesterday evening, Dr. Bauer did come by even though we had word from his clinic secretary that he wouldn’t be able to. He explained to me some of the next steps and the down side to this surgery is that they didn’t get to do as much as we wanted and thought they would. (We are still not exactly sure why). But the upside of that is that it is less traumatic for Ella. They only downsized her ear lobe and there is still a patch of fatty overgrowth on the side of the face before the ear. She started drinking a little bit last night and now is pretty keen on sucking juice from the syringe. Personally, I think we could leave soon – tomorrow morning at the latest. The only reason they’ve decided to have us stay is to allow her to get enough fluids and to finish intravenously the course of antibiotics she’s on.
Now that she is drinking (and had wet diapers and a poop) there is no reason that we shouldn’t be discharged.