2-??-2007

Everything is going great. We went back to visit Aliyah soon after her surgery yesterday and she was surprisingly awake already. Last time she was out for a week. Anyway, she was nodding or shaking her head yes or no and was coherent. She is only slightly loopy from the very little bit of morphine she gets for the pain. Amazing. About 4 hours after she came to cardiac recovery after the surgery, they took the breathing tube out and she was talking very soon afterward. I went home last night to get some sleep and came back today and she was sitting up in a chair. Heart transplant patients have been known to come home 2 to 3 weeks after surgery or sometimes even a little earlier when things go really well. So far Aliyah is on track to do that. This is quite a contrast to her previous surgery recoveries. The surgery was nowhere near as long as last time (last time was a actually a double with the back to back explant and then replant), she was in better shape coming into the surgery this time than the first time, and she had less bleeding after the surgery this time. The bottom line is wonderful, Aliyah will finally be untethered from the machine and especially from her parents(most teens nightmare). On the downside, as one of her friends noted, she has lost her cool points for being a cyborg the past couple years. I have heard Aliyah voice no concerns over the loss of that distinction.

Thanks again for all your thoughts and prayers for Aliyah over these past almost 2 years.