March 12 update.

For those of you who have called, emailed or sent texts today, sorry I didn't have a chance to answer. Spent a good portion of the day on the road coming home to see my kids and to get some things ready for when Sierra comes home, and just didn't have a chance today.

Right before I left, she had occupational therapy and some testing. From the sounds of it, she would be in the hospital till at least next week. The plan was that I was going to come home, get some things done, spend a day with my other kids, and drive back up tomorrow. While I was still driving, I received a text from Ken saying she would be discharged tomorrow morning.

This is great news. Exciting news and scary news....makes me nervous having her home soooo quickly after having such a major, traumatic surgery just 3 days ago. But I can't wait to have her in my arms, under our roof again.

Here are some things that we learned today. There are a few red flags going up as far as physical, occupational and speech therapy goes. BUT, considering just three days ago, we didn't know if she was even going to make it out of surgery, these things are a walk in the park. Her balance is still off quite a bit. She gets wobbly if standing for more than a few minutes. So, we're supposed to make some modifications to our home to assist with that. (Handles for the shower, a shower chair, etc). Her strength on the right side is quite a bit lower than the left, which is what the doctor warned us about. She can eventually get close to the same strength, but her right side is lagging. Also, currently, she isn't able to straighten her right arm completely. Sierra is right handed, but right now there is some confusion in her brain to which side she should use, and she's using her left hand more, which concerns the therapists. I'm not exactly sure why it's such a concern yet, but it is. (Who cares if she needs to be left handed....that's the least of our worries! I know there's more to it, but for now, we're thankful with her progress) With her speech, there is some delay, or lagging. For the most part with the speech, she's okay....there are just some setbacks that need to be worked through and shouldn't be too much of an issue.

So, with all that being said. She will be doing lots of physical, occupational and possibly speech therapy when she gets home. She is not allowed to return to school for the rest of the year, so we will need to enroll her into the home school program. Recovery is expected to take AT LEAST a year.

And, we're still waiting on biopsy results, and praying, praying, praying that they are benign.