PDL #4

Since Jasmine just got home from surgery and is running a temp, we just did Purpose Driven Life at home this week but I gave everyone a quiz on last week's chapter with the prize of candy for a good try.




For the most part we agree with the book but all of us have a problem with chapter 2 which says that God chose the exact parents to give you the exact genetic make up he wanted you to have diseases, flaws and all. Considering our adopted children's backgrounds and the diseases we each have, it makes God sound pretty heartless. I would hate to think that God sat down and chose for Jasmine to have a mom who took drugs and to give her a syndrome which requires her to have so many surgeries. I would rather think that he allowed it and will work through it rather than that he chose it for her. I have a problem that he would chose for me to have PKD and pass it on. Ty has a problem thinking that God chose for him to have asperger's and all the problems with fitting in that it has caused and that his talents are more behing the scenes ones. Adam has problems accepting that God would choose for his conception and birth to happen the way it did. They are with me that they'd rather believe that God allowed it but didn't single them out to have these things. But perhaps we'll find out differently when we reach heaven.

Out of Surgery

Our surgery time was 8:00 a.m. We arrived at 6:00 a.m. and only had to wait a short time before they took us upstairs and started getting Jasmine ready.
In the waiting room.
In the holding area.

Jasmine read to me while we waited in the operating holding area.

They gave Jasmine some bitter meds to make her loopy.



After surgery.
I gave Jasmine the movie Madagascar and a webkinz penguin in recovery.
Webbing is all gone. I actually took this picture so Jasmine could see it.
She has quite a scar on the back of her neck but nothing that shows from the front.

Popsicle.

Lunch. She only ate a bit of the potatoes. I ate the shrimp : )





Some ladies came around to tell Jasmine about all the stuff she could do. She went to the computer room. I went down to the SUV to get our stuff for night. When I got back she was already back in the room crying because the pain had hit. They gave her some tylenol with codeine orally but she's still not comfortable. They may give her morphine shortly.

Surgery time

Our surgeon said Jasmine would be second after a 13-mo-old cleft palate repair (we did that in 2001). But when I just called the phone line to get our show time she said we were first at 8 a.m. with a show time of 6 a.m. I hope she is right. Maybe the little guy isn't having his repair tomorrow for some reason. But if he is, we are at 11:00 a.m. For her last surgery we had a 7 a.m. show time with a 3 p.m. surgery time!! That was a long day!

For those of you who asked what is being done, she is having webbing--extra skin--removed from at least the right side of her neck. It doesn't show up that well in a picture. You can kind of see where it is in the pictures. Once it's removed, her neck will look "normal" whereas right now it is really wide. And she should have full range of movement. But the surgeon said there will be scarring.













Previous she has had a cleft lip repair, two cleft palate repairs, a hole in her skull repaired, ear tubes, fingers separated, toes moved into a more correct position on her right foot and a bone in the wrong spot removed (she only has two toes on that foot) and a club foot repair. She has all the toes on her left foot but they are fused in two's. They can't separate them or she will lose balance totally. She is a trooper (although this is the only surgery where she is old enough to understand) and my joy & song.

Zoo

Yay! I have internet tonight! The zoo trip went great today. It was awesome to have a day out with just Jasmine.


Lion watching us.
Gorillas.

Jasmine being Indiana Jones.




Jasmine told me she'd hold the nectar but when the time came, she backed out so I was holding the nectar and taking pictures. There were only four of us in the enclosure so three or four lorikeets at a time came over to me. While I was taking the picture, one was in my hair, one on my backpack/shoulder and three on my arm. A guy took the one off my backpack and about 1/2 second later it peed so I was glad he had it! And I was glad the one in my hair didn't do likewise!!

Climbing area
Climbing like the monkeys



Lunch
Play fountain
Brushing the goats.

Pre op

Our hotel only has internet in the lobby so I'm out here for a few minutes to post. We did preop today. We met with the surgeon who at this time plans to do the webbing on both sides of the neck. He said the scarring will be bad so he is going to try to go from the back so the scars will be on the back of her neck not front. He is using a procedure he uses for Turner Syndrome Kids (Jasmine has eec syndrome) instead of z-plasty if he can. Then we met with a bunch of people in anethesiology (??)--uh, the people who put her to sleep. Surgery is not until Thursday so we plan to spend Wed at Jacksonville Zoo.

We went to the cafeteria but they literally closed from breakfast right in front of us. There was food left--would it really have hurt to let us get some? Notice Jaz's breakfast--doritoes from a machine and juice we brought with. She's reading to me because she is missing a week of school.
Waiting to talk to the surgeon. I forgot to take her picture with him when he came in.
In the big hospital cafeteria for lunch. They have a Wendy's and Subway but Jasmine wanted the cafeteria. This is in a different building than the one that closed on us.
Waiting to meet with the other people.
A statute in Shands.

PDL #3

As I said in a previous post, we are reading through Purpose Driven Life one chapter a week. We are trying to do it somewhere interesting. This week we did it at the same bay as last week but we went in the late afternoon, cooked out steaks and took the kayaks along.


Playing games while we wait for Rick to get off work and join us.









PLaying Catch Phrase Junior



Come on guys!


Chapter Three was a bit long so we read half, ate the steaks and then finished the chapter.























We kayaked after we finished the chapter.