1 - 2 - 3, they are gone!!!!

That would be the drains we are referring to. We removed one drain yesterday and then the other two today. Yes, I played nurse and did it. At this point I'm in a "you do what you gotta do" mode. It was a little nerve racking finding the right place to cut the stick that held them to her but somehow the good Lord above guided my unsteady hand and I clipped the right spots. Angel was not a happy camper through this process, and we took breaks between because I just couldn't do them consecutively and I don't think she could have either. I can't event imagine how she would have reacted if we would have taken her to the pediatrician or waited till Thursday's appointment to get it done. Angel does not have a good reaction to nurses and doctors, who knows what kind of fit she would have thrown there. It's hard to hold her head right now because of the balloons and being afraid of hurting her.

The last drain we removed, late this afternoon, went to her chin/neck area and we discovered it hasn't been working. When we pulled it out quite a bit of fluid came out too. When looking at the tubing it appeared as though it must have gotten a kink in it somewhere along the way. So we will see how much fluid comes out tonight when she lays on it, we packed her with gauze on that side this evening just in case. The nurses said as long as the fluid comes out, they didn't really care if it was via the drain tubes or just through the access holes they had to make for the lines.

We are so glad to be done with those things, for now. We will deal with them again after each surgery. Here are pictures of our precious girl without all the bandages. Right now she looks like she just has some really chubby cheeks and chin and then a bump on her head.

Currently her balloons contain the following, which was done at surgery time to fill up the space made:

The 250cc balloons in her forehead and chin/neck area contain 30 cc each
The 70 cc balloon in her right cheek contains 10 cc

She's still a little cutie pie!!!

We will head back to Chicago on Wednesday for our appointment Thursday morning with Dr. Bauer's nurses and learn how to properly do the injections first hand. So watch for updated photos later this week as we will document her progress after each injection.

I hope we continue to get a smile like the above one each time we update.

Please pray that she continues to heal well and that she copes well with the injections on Thursday.

Many Blessings!