One Step Closer to Home

We were moved back to the regular pediatrics floor today, back to the very same room we started in last Wednesday.  It felt strangely like a homecoming.  We received a warm welcome from the nursing staff that we had become so friendly with throughout the week.  Our girl has a smile that captures anyone she meets and I've been told that she has become pretty popular around here.  Apparently she caused quite a buzz when the staff learned she was joining them again so soon.  She had a group of 5 nurses who crowded around her bedside to visit with her as we settled her in.  She's been referred to as "champion," "rock star," and "tough lil' cookie."  She is a tough little cookie, I'm so proud of her.  She's looking so good today.  She's eating like she does at home and she's resting comfortably.  They are weaning her off the heavier pain meds and I'm hoping that she'll be a bit more alert tomorrow.  I'm missing my special girl.

    
Mommy has earned some popularity too.  The staff here has gone bananas over this anatomical heart that I knit for Danielle in anticipation of her surgery.  I've had a few staff members here pop in just to get a look at it.  I'm really wishing now that I had taken the time to finish it completely, making it anatomically correct to include the superior vena cava, inferior vena cava, and pulmonary veins.  I think I will finish it and give it to the surgical staff that repaired Danielle's heart.

You can find the pattern here: http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEwinter08/PATTheart.php, if you're interested in making one for yourself.  I followed the pattern, except I used worsted weight yarn to make it a little larger, picked up stitches to add the detail to the aorta, and wrapped the aortic valve around the pulmonary valve a little differently that shown to make it more anatomically correct.