Rose is out of the hospital!!!

Rose was discharged from the hospital yesterday afternoon. At the moment she looks like she lost a heavy weight boxing match, but I know under the bandages there are good things happening. The hemangioma had ulcerated and Dr Lisa Buckmiller thought she had lost some of the cartilage from her nose. Luckily that did not happen, so she removed the excess fat and growth that made her nose so round. Rose is going to need some more help in the future, but Dr Lisa thinks that we need to wait 8 months to a year before she can make any more decisions.

Rose has been such a good patient!! She did not cry once. She came out of surgery and trashed around a lot until they gave her something to make her sleep. She did not have any additional pain medication. So many people commented on how mellow she has been. On top of all of this she is also teething: eight teeth. She has also been crawling and learning how to blow kisses and make UUUUHHHHH! sounds. Her little belly goes up and down with the effort of that. We are working on clapping her hands. I wish I could bottle this good patient dust and sprinkle it over the babies that will need it in the future.

The LWB's medical team has done some awesome surgeries as usual. Dr Lisa and the team took on more than 30 patients other doctors had turned away. That includes a lot of bilateral cleft lips, which means both nostrils and wide unilateral clefts were the gap is really big. She also consulted on babies with hemangiomas. The medical staff at the Shanghai Children's Medical Center were awesome because it is so hard for them to do so much in English and to find a way to make a foreign way work with the Chinese way.

Nathaniel has his surgery yesterday afternoon and should be out of the hospital on Thursday. Kay has been looking after him. Christine has been taking care of Cailean and he will be having his surgery on Thursday. It has been a big week for Starfish!!

Many people commented on the strawberry baby, Megan. Who is she? I was in Yulin a on the Sunday before we left and I found out about her after the directors asked me for some help with her heart condition. She has a really blue mouth and feet and when she cries she goes purple all over. I called Dr Li from the orphanage and he suggested that I take her home. From the reports I hear she is doing really well. The most important thing is that she is eating well which is some what unusual for severe heart babies which makes her sleep for long periods of time. We will do the echo and see what is wrong with her heart and so I could be seeing Dr.Li soon.

Thank you for your support and concern you have for my babies. I am so grateful for the excellent care they receive and for the many interesting people whom I meet. Thanks especially to Kay, Christine and the Faulkners or laying the love on thick when it comes to Nathaniel, Cailean and Christopher. The Faulners have really saved Christopher's life. He now weighs 4.85kg which is just .5kg less than Erica!!

Something else worth mentioning. Bonnie and her family are in town. I met them with the LWB team. As some of you might remember this is the family that Susan was matched with at the time she died. Bonnie was then matched with another heart baby who sadly also died and then they were matched with a third baby. They are in China adopting her at the moment. Talk about tenacity in the face of sever hardship. I am so happy for them.

Life, Love and Laughter,
Amanda

Starfish Foster Home
www.chinesestarfish.org
http://chinesestarfish.blogspot.com