| June 13, 2005 Avalon's surgery
 
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      This morning, at 8 am is Avalon's surgery to re-implant her port.  Surgery itself 
should be less than an hour - with an hour in recovery.  If all goes well, we should be 
winging our way home by 11:00 am.  
I'll be very happy if I can report to you this afternoon - that the worst part of today 
was getting up at 4:30 - to be in the surgery center by 6 am.  
Please keep her in your thoughts...
We love ALL of you!
Alicia, Nick, Aurora, Ambrosia, and Avalon.
      
      
        
          
            | June 13, 2005 Avalon is at home!
 
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      Ding dong the PICC is gone!
Which old PICC?
The hated PICC.
Ding dong the wicked PICC is gone....
Avalon's surgery to reimplant her subcutaneous infusion port (SIP) went well.  The 
surgeon chose to do the implant incision more central in her chest - and low this time. 
 The exact quote was:
"I put the incision low - where a bra line will be.  It won't be so noticeable...she already 
has other scars to deal with."
I happen to think that was remarkably thoughtful since he was working on a two year 
old.  Again, someone at Children's has suprised me with their kindness.  I keep 
thinking its not possible to surprise me any more.  Lesson learned.
Avalon won't be able to get the site wet for a week...but at least there is a bath in her 
near future.  Wahoo!  for that .
Avalon also came home with the port accessed.  They need to be accessed for the 
first several days after implantation - basically to properly scar into place.  Since she 
got the last port during diagnosis stay, access wasn't a problem.  This time, she 
came home accessed - and we will just have to Heparinize her every day like we had 
been doing with the PICC line.  No biggie.  Avalon has one of her awful super chemo 
days on Thursday...they will probably be able to de-access her then.  
There were a few snags today.  First of all, Avalon woke up with a runny nose with 
icky green boogies.  Not a great sign - let's hope it doesn't get any worse than that.  
Second, she did spike a fever after surgery.  However, she also flushed greatly from 
the anesthesia - so only time will tell if the fever was from the flushing or not.  The 
moral of the story is that I'll be taking her temperature constantly today - just to make 
sure.  Give her a few hours, and she'll be ready to take me out back of the woodshed 
if I come near her with a Temp-a-dot.  As per usual...I'll keep you posted!
Currently, my little patient is sitting quietly on the family room floor, eating fruit loops, 
playing with My Pretty Ponies, and intermittently hugging the stuffing out of Ambrosia. 
 She's dopey, hungry, and not exactly operating in our plane of existence...but she's 
happy.
Thank you one and all for once again helping keep her safe.  We appreciate each 
thought and prayer.  
Love!
Alicia, Nick, Aurora, Ambrosia, and Avalon
      
      
      
            
      
      Our Journey:
      
      Avalon's Army of Angels