I want to thank everyone again for all the thoughts and prayers that were given for our sweet Megan. I thought that you might find it interesting to see her journey in pictures and then get an update.
Here is Megan 6:30 in the morning. Just got her vitals taken and some nifty clothes to wear. She's in good spirits, all things considered.
This is about an hour later waiting for all the doctors and anesthesiologists to get everyone and everything in order. She was starting to get really hungry and tired here.
They took her back at 8:30 and we waited until 2:30 in the waiting room with a couple updates from the nurse that was in the operating room with them. We were extremely grateful for the updates. They broke up the time for us. Here she is shortly after she came out of the surgery and was settled into her room in the PICU (Pediatric Intensive Care Unit). She looked great for just having gone through what she did! Doctor told us that the procedure couldn't have gone any better. Praise the Lord! He also told us that she looks good now, but to beware that there would be much swelling in her future.
Sure enough, the middle of that first night her face started getting more taught and less soft as it began to swell. Thanks to medication she seemed to be comfortable and slept a lot of the time, which was probably a good thing because she was VERY interested in all the cords and such hanging off of nearly every appendage.
By the next day her head was so swollen and her eyes were swollen completely shut. Her ears were also hugely swollen. She looked so pathetic as she lay there sleeping peacefully.
When she wasn't sleeping she was so frustrated that she couldn't see. That was so hard for me to see her that way. I would talk to her and she would turn her head toward my voice, but would get so frustrated that she couldn't open her eyes! Poor darlin'.
By the evening of the third day she was completely off of the Morphine and only on Tylenol, a big blessing, and you could tell she was starting to feel better. She started grunting at me, which was the first sign that she was on the mend. She would do that to me before we even went in. Was sort of a game between the two of us, grunting back and forth at each other. You can see why this simple gesture made me so excited! 
Wasn't much longer after that when her eyes started to barely open. I was so extremely excited about that! The doctor told us that before we left the hospital she would have to at least open one of her eyes completely. I was surprised at how quickly they opened once I saw the first tiny little opening.
Here, they really started opening, along with a tiny smile to go with it!
This was the following morning and day 4, a few hours before they released her from the hospital. I was so extremely anxious to get out of there by then. Once her eyes did open and she saw all the fun things to pull on, ie. IV's and heart and oxygen monitor cords and whatever else she had attached to her, she would NOT leave them alone. I couldn't wait for them to take all of this stuff off of her and get out of there! Not to mention, the silly machines would beep in the night and would wake her up shortly after she had just fallen asleep.
I think she was ready to go home as well!
It has now been a little over a month and she is just doing GREAT! Her demeanor has changed since her surgery as well. She's a LOT more active, or at least desires to be anyway, and she has become a lot more vocal as well. The way my husband puts it, "it's like all those files in her brain have been unzipped and now she's able to do so much more because of it." Sure seems like it was affecting her at least a little bit anyway. 
She's still a very happy little girl, for which we are grateful to as well! Her head is healing well and most of her dissolveable stitches are gone. She goes back to see the doctor the first part of February so we'll see how he thinks she's healing! 
We're so grateful for our little pink blessing God gave us and look forward to how this impacts her life and how she can use this for His glory someday!
