Tomorrow it will be three months since our daughter’s heart surgery, so I think now is a good time to give an update to our young patient’s recovery.

The first week home was pretty uneventful. We were probably a little over-protective of her, but she was completely spoiled by the neighbors and she ended up enjoying showing off her scar to people when they came over to see how she was doing. It wasn’t long before she was asking to go on the swing and ride her brother’s scooter and other things that we could not allow her to do while her sternum was healing.

The Friday after we left the hospital we took her back for a scheduled quick checkup. They weighed her and measured her and took some chest X-rays to make sure everything looked ok, and after a quick going over by her doctor we were told that everything was going exactly as expected and to bring her back in six weeks for a followup.

So for the remainder of June and all of July we went about life pretty much as normal, with the exception that we couldn’t take her swimming due to the risk of infection while her incision healed. But she had plenty of fun running through sprinklers and enjoying other summertime activities. Because we did not know what to expect from her recovery we did not plan a summer vacation, and instead took advantage of many activities close to home. We took the kids to see fireworks while their grandparents were visiting, as well as visiting fairs and other area attractions.

At the end of July she had her six week followup visit with her cardiologist. The news from that visit is that the surgery was a complete success and we can basically go forward as if she never had a heart problem. We will still need to return to the hospital on occasion (next year, and then every 5 or so after that) just as a precaution, but otherwise she is perfectly healthy and happy. Hooray for modern medicine!

Because I really can’t resist, I’ve posted some cute pictures of her from our summer on the Photo Page.