We're Home

Waiting. There's a lot of waiting at the hospital.

Vivian did so well today. Thanks for your positive thoughts and prayers - it's amazing how that support is tangible and so, so uplifting - thank you.

We had a great anesthesiologist who took good care of Vivian during her hearing test. She was under for 2.5 hours (dreaming happily, I hope - those were my instructions as I said goodbye) and our audiologist was able to get some good information.

Bottom line (funny how doctors always seem to give the bottom line/big picture after all the medically overwhelming details - but that's just how I roll - I want the big picture first, details second), Vivian's hearing is compromised on her right side, but will be able to be corrected with a hearing aid. She is profoundly deaf on her left side, but we'll still try an aid . Our audiologist was able to make impressions of her ears while she was under, and we'll be getting some loaner aids from Stanford while hers are being made. This is pretty much what we were expecting based on her newborn screening, botched test and knowing her for a year now. I feel happy to know and am excited about Vivian's world being filled with some new beautiful details like softly chirping birds, squirrel chases in the backyard trees and the whispering of sweet nothings into her sweet little ear.

It was hard being back inside the hospital walls - we literally followed the same path we took in December - to admitting, second floor pre-op check in, waited in the hall, taken by the nurse to the same exact room to be weighed and measured, instructed to sit on the same exact couch to wait, walked with Vivian in my arms through the same doors where Vince and I achingly said goodbye and handed her over to the cardiac anesthesiologist last winter. Of course, my heart was lighter this time round, but the memories were real and close.

Small world, I kept running into an old colleague whose daughter was getting her tonsils out; we spotted Vivian's rockstar heart surgeon from down the hall - most doctors don't wear tweed jackets over their scrubs, but he does- (I would have said hello if he'd walked past us, but I wasn't about to go chasing after him, I am not a doctor stalker :)); and on our way out of the hospital, we ran into my dear friend from childhood who is now a pediatric hospitalist. I like to be reminded that the world is small and is filled with good people.

Viv's been eating up a storm tonight and is currently blowing raspberries and saying /eh//eh/ (her new sound) while intermittedly clapping and chewing on her blankie next to me. My little sweetie, such a strong little bug. I am exhausted, mentally and physically.

Oh, and did I mention we walked to get ice cream tonight? And now I feel sick. Because I got that waffle bowl with chocolate and sprinkles again. What was I thinking?