Lili's surgery (long journal entry)

Well, we are home and all is wonderful!
Okay... ton of pictures and they are all out of order. When I have time I will try to organize them. I have also included a picture from last night's talent show at Xavier of Mckenzie and her friend Delany.
We left Sunday after Lili's 2nd birthday (but our 1st birthday celebration). We decided to give Lil her own birthday cake since she missed out on this on her 1st b-day. Meili enjoyed sharing this with Lili and Lili did not seem to mind sharing.
Anyway, we stayed at Greg and Kristi's house Sunday and woke up early Monday morning for our flight. Lili sat on my lap the entire time to Denver and then slept the whole way to Little Rock (from Denver).
We landed in Little Rock at 1:30 and had to be to the consult appt by 1:45 (we were only 5 minutes late :) ). I must say... Scott and I were both amazed by how beautiful Little Rock is - I'm not sure what we were expecting but it is a very green city. Trees everywhere - it is beautiful with really, really nice people.
Lili's 1st appt was with a surgeon. We wanted to see if she still had an umbilical hernia and to see if she needed to have her belly button redone. He told us that he was not sure if she had ever had a hernia and that she did not have one now. He suggested to us to leave her belly button alone and to let her grow into it - we were happy for his honest opinion.
Our next appointment was not until 3:15 so we went to the cafeteria and ate some yummy sweet potato fries...mmm...
We were very impressed with Dr. Buckmiller's office staff. It was so fun to meet Emily, one of the Dr. Buckmiller's nurses who has been so, so helpful during the adoption of Lili. She is definitely one person who was an answer to prayers when we were deciding on Lili's file. She e-mailed me and told me all about hemangiomas and how easy they are to treat - I will always be grateful to Emily and for the role she played in our adoption!!!
We met Dr. Buckmiller and she told us what she would do in the morning and explained what hemangiomas are, what some reasons for multiple hemangioma, and what to expect the next day. After the visit we met Dr. Buckmiller's darling little Anna (wish I had my camera then...) and her husband. Anna and Lili are from the same province in China. Lili had not eaten anything all day (couldn't get her to) and scarfed poor Anna's french fries.
The office staff suggested that we not stay in the hotel we had reservations for because of the area of town it was in and told us where we should look so after the visit we spent an hour or so looking for a better hotel, ate at PF Changs and turned in early.
Surgery day... Lili was not able to have food after midnight for surgery at 11:30. We had to be to the hospital by 9:30. Lili did really well with all of the preop tests. We were amazed when a nurse came to draw blood by pricking her finger and then squeezing the blood into a vile - Lili just sat and watched the blood drip into the vile and did not cry at all. Also, when the nurses would want to look down her throat she opened her mouth and stuck out her tongue - she was a trooper!!! Surgery got moved back an hour and a half so we spent some fun time in the playroom. Emily came into have us sign some papers and brought Lili the cutest little doll. I was sooo embarrassed because Lili was at the end of her rope and tossed the doll when Emily gave it to her... By this point she was getting irritated because she was hungry and it was nap time. (The doll has since become a favorite and she played with it a ton in the hotel room)
At 1:02 the nurse anesthetist (sp?) gave Lili Verset (sp?). They referred to it as goofy juice and told us to expect it to work in 5 minutes... Well, when it hit 5 minutes later Lili laid down and for the next 40 minutes said to me 1 .... 2.... no.... 1..... 2.... no.... with her finger straight at me.... occasionally she would say go... she seemed bugged about something. They took her back for surgery around 2. Scott and I went to lunch and were shocked when we received a page saying to come back about a 1/2 hour after she went in... It panicked me because we thought it would take an hour and 1/2 so we dropped lunch and went running back to the waiting room luckily for the guy to tell us the doctor would be out in 20 minutes to talk to us... whew...
She told us all went well. She took out about 60-70% of the hemangioma on her cheek - she could not take out all or Lili would have had a pucker on her cheek - she took out as much as she could and she took out most of the eye one - both are nice and flat. She has 17 stitches on her cheek that we will have removed in a week and disolvable stitches in her eye. Both look wonderful. Both still have some redness that the doctor thought will go away on their own or we can have them lasered off. Dr. Buckmillers main concern was to take away the fatty tissue and extra skin that would not have gone away on its own.
We went into the recovery room once they had taken the tube out of her throat. Lili was mad and screaming like crazy. They put braces on her arms so she can not bend her arms to prevent her from pulling out the stitches. This made her so mad - she is so independent and she could not even hold her own bottle. We finally got her calmed down after a 1/2 hour or so and then they moved us to another room where she slept for a 1/2 or so. After she woke up they had us dress her and we took her back to the hotel.
It was amazing! Everyone at the hospital were so nice and so caring. We were so impressed with the whole process and the care she received!
We went to the hotel for a while and let her recoop... then, went and picked up the best local bbq...mmmmm..... and of course ended the evening with American Idol ;)
Lili slept the whole night and did not seem to need her pain medication. We did go to the store to buy some Tylenol for the airplane - she did not seem to need the Tylenol with Codeine that she was prescribed.
We spent Wednesday morning driving around the city. We stopped by the Clinton Library - it was beautiful and drove around downtown.
The plane rides were very uneventful- she slept during the long flight and watched Dora on the flight into SLC. I can't believe how easy she was. It was fun to have time to spend just with her - she definitely enjoyed all of our attention!
Glad to be home and will post photos soon!

I am also including some photos of the kids end of the year showcase at school. Davis' class recited a poem from Shel Silversteen (sp), Reese did a tap dance (wow! he can tap!!! I love it!!!) and sang the National Anthem, and Mckenzie's class recited Cassie at the Bat (really long - loved it). It was a wonderful night and we were impressed with the progress all of the students have made!