(It’s Tif!)

I flew back in last night. One of the most annoying things is that there is no direct flight here, so it’s always a long day. This time I flew all the way to North Carolina and then back over to Ohio. 1-2 hour delays on each flight, but I still landed somewhere between 11 PM and midnight. Daniel picked me up at the airport, and it really was so strange that it had been 10 days since I saw him. I feel like I was living a seperate life in San Diego, kind of our pre surgery life busyness (just without the drs appointments and with longer work hours 10-14 hour ones). Mylin was sleeping when I got there so I didn’t get to see them until this morning. Daniel said how crazy it was that this was the first time we were sleeping in the same room in over a month. (Since we had been taking turnsstaying at the hospital with Mylin.)

The alarm went off before I was ready, for us to get breakfast and head over for an early morning appointment. It was so good to see Mylin awake in the morning. They are feeling so much better than when I left! We gave each other a hard time, and they were annoyed at my tired energy. We always joked that the more tired I am the more drunk I act lol, or like a very hyper kid. They said they were about to send me back home. Lol. When we were leaving, I finally got to meet one of the moms from our online support group that has been so amazing throughout this process. It was nice to give her a hug and get to chat her for a few minutes before we had to run to our appointment. I also got to see another Mom I knew and give her a big hug too.

At today’s appointment we met first with Dr. McKillop (our pain psychologist) and Sarah (our social worker). They checked in with Mylin to see how they’ve been feeling, dealing with pain, what their pain level was, how diabetes care is going, and how they’ve been eating. When they asked Mylin what their pain level was currently, and they said “I don’t know I don’t really have any right now.” I choked up! I don’t really have any right now?!!!! Oh my gosh, just 4 short months ago, barely a season ago, I never thought that would be a reality for this kid! Ever! Daily “livable pain” that they could force themself to push through had been a 6 for such a long time and was getting increasingly worse. This means more than we can even explain. Like, hello, game changer!! You guys, before this surgery we were talking serious, serious pain medication to even touch the pain, and now here we are. We’re weaned off all pain medication, even Tylenol…. And “I don’t really have pain right now.” Does that not move you?! Everything else was good too. My is doing so awesome! Sarah said it’s time to prepare Mylin’s “Make-A-Wish” and My was elated. (They tried to play coy, but they were pumped! They’ve been joking. I always have said I’m a make a wish kid, who knew I actually am! This poor kid and all the sickness they’ve had.) They’ve been asking me for weeks if I would contact whoever I needed to contact to get this underway, so this was beyond exciting for them.

Next we met with Christie. It was good to see her. She was telling us about how Mylin’s case has been such a great example that they have already been able to share in recent consultations. She also said that Mylin looks great, Mylin‘s eating great, and pain and nausea under control…. Soooooo, she asked us how we would feel about going home soon and how soon we would wanna go. It sounds like we get to take Mylin home next week!! I can’t even believe it. I told her that as Mylin was getting better I had told Daniel, “You just wait and see. This kid will try to heal in time for the first day of school!!” The first day of school is next Thursday, and there are talks about trying to get them home in time to be there. It just seems so unreal. Even though there were definitely hard parts, Mylin has healed in half of the time that they originally estimated. It’s incredible how well they’re doing. he had warned that the school we may not be back until September, and here we are possibly making the very first day of school! Even when asked about the hardships with diabetes, Mylin says “it’s whatever it’s no big deal compared to what I was already dealing with.” Christie is going to contact our doctor in San Diego to see how quickly he could get us to remove the JG tube in the stomach. Since usually appointments in San Diego are booked out months in advance, she wants to ensure if we go back, we will be able to get that out in a timely manner. It should come out at about six weeks after surgery, which would be the week after next. Therefore, it doesn’t really make sense for us to fly home if we can’t get the tube out once we’re there and we would have to come all the way back to get it out. She was going to talk also to the doctors on our team here and see if they were all in agreement that Mylin could go home next week. This would also be awesome because Daniel wouldn’t have to fly back. We could just meet everyone at home. (He actually had to leave this appointment a little early to make it to the airport.) I mentioned that Daniel had noticed that in the bloodwork, some of the test results that would indicate the islets are starting to wake up went from bottomed out right after surgery to trending upward. I asked if that really meant what we thought it did, that the implanted islets are waking up in the liver. She got a smile and said that is what that means. We were so happy! Obviously there is no guarantee what will happen, but what an exciting and positive thing to see! We stayed in the appointment for awhile and I chatted up Christie about life, music, family, and being mom. I love that girl!

After appointments, My and I got lunch and shopped a little. I think we were a little low in our lunch estimate for the insulin bolus, so My cruised a little high with blood sugar a chunk of the afternoon. I am getting back into the swing of it. It was good for My to be out and get some walking in. We also walked a couple blocks in a cute neighborhood. That took all their energy and they needed a nap. They took about a 4 hour nap, and then they talked me into Jeni’s ice cream. I got them to agree to walk the cute Short North neighborhood. It was pop’n! Lots of music, people and cars. My walked for the longest they have walked since surgery, and we just chatted it up the whole time.

I really can’t tell you how nice it is to be here with them and see how good they are. This is just 4 & 1/2 WEEKS past surgery! We are so excited to see what 4 months will look like.