Day +3,496, Post #2: Long Day

Mina is sleeping peacefully now after a very long day.  Keri and I sat with her for most of the day.  She went into the OR around 11:00, was out around 1:00, and was transferred to a room on 7 Long around 2:00.  She slept for a while after coming up here, then was awake and chatting for several hours.  Our dear friend Susie came to visit around 6:00, bringing cards from the kids and teachers at Katherine Michiels School, where Mina attended until last year and where Isaac and Susie's kids Soren and Aedan go to school.  Mina enjoyed reading the cards a lot.  Later on Heidi visited with Mina's best friend Raven, but Mina was feeling pain again and received some morphine so she was a little of out it.  Isaac spent the afternoon with his good friend Jake, and was finally able to visit around 7:30.  Everyone left around 8:00, and then it took us an hour or so until Mina was able to lay down and go to sleep.

Feels very weird being back on 7 Long.  Everything feels so familiar, it's almost like we never left.  There are even a few nurses who still remember us from 9 years ago. Definitely lots of memories flooding back, most of them good ones but also the anxiety and the worry that was so overwhelming then.  But Mina is doing great and we will be home before we know it so in that sense it really doesn't feel the same.  We definitely don't need to be waiting around for weeks until her neutrophil count comes back up!

Mina still has a tube in her chest to drain fluid and air out of the chest cavity.  This helps to prevent a collapsed lung.  She will need to stay in the hospital until the hole that they made in her lung to extract the tissue heals up.  That could be a day or two, or could take longer.  She has always been a quick healer so we are aiming for Wednesday morning.  Here is hoping for a very quiet night so we can both get some rest!