So I left off writing the morning that we took Norah down to surgery and I feel like this week has been so emotional, so full in so many ways, I haven’t had the energy to post what I really wanted to say. A BIG thank you to Tamara and Gary (Jason’s parents) for being with us through the biggest week of all 3 of our lives!!! It was great to have the company, the hugs, and the relief that someone could stay with Norah when Jason and I needed to get away for a bit, even if it was just for lunch.

Norah’s surgery thus far seems very successful. The liver fit better than expected, and while it still protrudes out of the right side of her belly a bit, they were able to close her completely, which is a HUGE relief! Her surgery last around 6.5-7 hours and her surgeon has come in every day to check on her and do a quick evaluation, look over her labs, etc. but he seems very pleased with how things are going. Her liver enzymes continue to go down and her total bilirubin is 1.5! That’s only about 0.2 above the normal range!! She is getting more and more pink every day and her eyes are clearing up so well! Hard to say what color they will be, but regardless they are beautiful!!

She is also getting back to her old self, giving all the nurses a hard time with how “wiggly” and “grabby” she is. All of them have commented how quick and how smart she is, but they all seem to love her and appreciate her fighting spirit! Especially now that she can move more freely without feeling like she is going to choke now that they removed the breathing tube this morning (which we are hopeful will stay out this time), she is spunky and rearing to go! Thus she has to wear wrist restraints to keep her from pulling at her lines and cords to protect her from herself.

Today was not only huge in that she got taken off the ventilator, but they also needed to do 2 dressing changes, a bath, and she kicked out the IV in her foot. She slept hard after the second dressing change and bath, but was really restless at 8:30 when Jason and I came back after dinner. I filled the nurse in on some of the things Norah likes, including music, head rubs, and sleeping on her side. Very shortly after turning her to her side, she started snoring in her sleep, so it was at that point that Jason and I felt comfortable leaving her for the night.

It’s been 1 week since she received her precious gift of a second chance at life and it just feels so surreal, even still. I’m not sure when my head is truly going to be able to wrap itself around what has transpired over the last 7 days, but I’m sure the next several weeks will be full of small milestones! We are so grateful that there was a family out there that made the difficult decision to allow their child to help others when he passed. Please pray for both our family and the donor family as both have much healing to do over the coming days, weeks, and months. We feel so blessed by God’s miracles and the way he worked this all out, even if it threw Jason and I for a big loop. Hehe. Probably best that we didn’t have much time to try to process and anticipate it all!! Now we have a bright future to look ahead to!!!!!