Interesting turn of events!

I trust you all are doing well!

My pregnancy with Mia really did my body in. During my pregnancy, I noticed I got an umbilical hernia, so after dealing with it for a year after her birth (c section), I finally couldn't take it anymore so I got it fixed. Last October, I had to have a corrective surgery to the previous one - which was nearly unbearable.

About 2 weeks ago, on October 19th, I had my third post-pregnancy surgery due to Mia's health complications. I needed to have surgical drains this time which isn't horrible, but definitely not pleasant or comfortable to have or deal with. Last Friday I begged the clinic to be seen to get the drains taken out by any doctor (mine wasn't in that day), they squeezed me in, but disappointedly, I only got one removed, but I was happy to only deal with one!

Yesterday my friend Carol came with me to keep me company during the 2 hour drive to the Travis Air Force Base hospital for my follow-up appointment to remove the other drain. I was soo looking forward to being drain-free!! My doctor, Dr. H, called in her fellow doctor, Dr. G, who removed the first drain so he could give his opinion if my healing was going well and if I looked better or worse since Friday. After showing them the incision site, swelling, bruising and talking about pains I've been having, they started talking about some options. When Dr. G asked when I last ate and drank anything, that really caught me off guard! Really?? Surgery right now?? Yep.

My friend Carol drove my car to her home and I stayed at the doctors office waiting for paper work to be completed, then Dr. G walked me to the operating room to get gowned up and ready for surgery. I'm so glad I'm comfortable in hospitals ... it helps that I joke around so it makes me and the people working on me less nervous. I enjoy making the staff laugh ... once in a while I get a super serious-no-sense-of-humor type, but thankfully yesterday everyone was cool. The anesthesiologist even let me drug myself via the IV! Haha That was funny ... its amazing how strong those drugs are and how fast they work. Within 90 seconds, I was out. I knew I didn't have long to finish my story ... and I don't know if I got it finished or not. Haha

Praise God the surgery went well. It was an emergency/exploratory operation and they weren't sure if it would even be beneficial, but thankfully Dr. G strongly suggested it because it was very beneficial. They reopened about 5 inches of the incision and they washed out everything and cleaned it up and much to their suspicion, they found and removed a blood clot that was causing all the issues - a little smaller than a baseball, Dr. H said. She wants to keep me in the hospital until possibly Friday to make sure my blood counts are getting better.

Robert was shocked when I told him I wouldn't be coming home because I was having emergency surgery (I was shocked too!) He made the drive up and got to my room around 1:00am so I was nice and shared my hospital bed with him. It's a good thing we're both small. :) He left around noon to take care of some things at home and pick up something from the pharmacy for Mia, and is taking Mercedes trick or treating with some neighbors, but will be coming back around midnight again.

I'm bummed I'm missing out on the girls getting dressed up. It was crazy hair/hat day at school today, too, so I missed out on that as well. :( I hear Mercedes liked how my Mom made her hair crazy. :)

Last Sunday, we went to CRC for their annual Halloween Parade. It was great seeing everyone again and seeing some families who also have taken their kids home. :) I ran into an old neighbor from the apartment as he was walking by, so it was nice catching up with him - and seeing his beautiful chocolate lab. I finally got my dog fix. :) I miss my Lila. :( I was telling him it's been weird not having a dog for this recovery ... cats are definitely not the same. Haha Anyway, the girls enjoyed the parade and they were both beautiful Tinker Bells! Everyone couldn't believe how good Mia looks and how much she's grown already. :)

That's about it... it's been a crazy 24 hours! :) My main goal for the appointment yesterday was to get the drain out.. and I end up having surgery and come out with two new drains. Haha Oh well. I can't win all the time!

Rachael

Mia heading to bed...

I was walking down the hallway when I saw Mia going to her bedroom looking over her daddy's shoulder. It was too cute - especially with her messy pigtails bouncing around!

We're home!!

Mia's first time in a car - on her way home!

Well, it finally happened! As of August 28th, Mia is living at home with us!! I won't bore you with all the drama we had with the insurance company and supply vendors trying to make it happen, but, even though it was delayed 3 weeks, everything is now working out and she is HOME!!

Renee, Mia, me, Carol, Mom & Aunt Karen

My sister, Renee, has always had the dream to live in Nashville - and it was finally becoming reality after 20 years! She works at Starbucks and we decided to surprise her on her last shift in her California store by bringing Mia in for a visit. =) It went over VERY well and Renee was very excited to have Mia visit her for the very first time! It's a lot of work getting Mia and ALL her equipment in the car and placing everything so the nurse has access to anything she may need in an emergency. It took us about 40 minutes to get Mia loaded in the car at home, and thankfully only about 15 minutes getting her back in the car after the Starbucks visit. =)

The Irvin Cortez family

We had her Homecoming Party planned for a while before any of the drama happened, so we were hoping to have a month to get into the swing of things before the party... Nope. We had 5 days instead. But it all worked out beautifully! Mia LOVED all the company and she stayed awake the entire time! She loved it - especially having her cousins and other children around. :)



About 2 weeks after being home in Gilroy, Mia had her first appointment with our fabulous Pediatrician in Los Gatos (she is Mercedes' doctor and I'd rather make the 30 minute drive to Los Gatos than switching! She is WONDERFUL!) Mia LOVED the bright colors of the paintings on the walls and she just had a fun time looking around. Dr. Pitts-Davis was happy to finally meet Mia after hearing about her and seeing pictures for the past 3 years since Mercedes has been her patient. Little did we ALL know that Mia would make their work load so much heavier - even when we're not there!! They've bent over backwards trying to figure out what exactly we need and how to get it, etc. They've never quite had a patient like Mia before - and we've never had to deal with this side of things - everything was always just 'taken care of' at CRC. It's a learning experience (a.k.a nightmare) for all of us. haha Thankfully once we figure out all this beginning stuff and get it set up, we won't have to deal with it for a while - so that's a blessing!! Usually we don't get a whole lot of great feedback from doctors or nurses about Mia - which I usually ignore because they don't know her. They just go off of facial expressions or responses - which she is unable to make facial expressions and her responses are getting better, but are still delayed. One thing I loved what Mia's doctor said was, after assessing her for about 10 minutes or so and talking to me and getting to know Mia and knowing her history and such, she interuppted me and said "you know, she doesn't miss a THING! She is ALL there - there's no doubt about it!" I got so excited because she agrees with me!! I've always known Mia is very smart and is 'all there'! She gets frustrated, though, because her body doesn't do what her brain is telling it to do - BUT she has improved DRASTICALLY already in her short little 3 1/2 years of fighting. =) Mia is incredible. I love to see what God is doing in her life and development!

Mercedes is loving life in Gilroy - and having her own bedroom again. She doesn't remember living in Las Vegas at all - she does remember when we'd be at our house in Sacramento for the week out of the month for the 9 months or so Robert worked there at Sac State, but living in the dining room at the apartment is basically all she knows. She's so excited she doesn't hear the dishwasher from her bed and that she has a window!! When we'd ask if she could have ANYTHING she wanted in her room, the first thing she always said was that she couldn't wait to have a window! So sweet. =) Just before we moved in the house in early July, we ordered a bunch of stuff online so it'd be there when we moved in, or just afterwards. One thing that was waiting for us in the garage when we moved in was her bunk bed that she'd been wanting. She was very happy to be sleeping on a twin bed, though she was still perfectly content sleeping on her toddler bed.

Willow enjoys doing homework too. haha

Walking to school

Mercedes is loving being in 1st Grade at a near-by school and has made so many friends in her class and in the other 1st Grade classes. She amazes us with her reading, though she complains and turns into a 'wet noodle' when she doesn't want to do homework, but would rather be with "Mia" (we really know she just wants to watch Netflix on Mia's iPad with Mia!) Once she changes her mindset, she does her homework super well and quickly! =) Ever since she was about 2 1/2 or 3 years old, I'd always get her school work books just to keep her busy and so she can learn. Of course, it started out with Pre-K books which is mostly coloring, but she'd whip through the books so fast! Now she's working on her 2nd Grade books just for fun and she goes to sleep doing "school" and the first thing she wants to do when she wakes up is continue doing "school". =)

Ever since Mercedes was about 3 1/2 years old, she's been saying she's going to be a doctor. A few weekends ago (we don't have nursing on Saturdays and Sundays at the moment so all 48 - somtimes 56 - hours are between Robert and myself) I was in the kitchen getting Mia's formula ready and I knew Robert had been taking a nap, but I heard the suction machine turn on. I thought that Robert just took a short snooze and he was back with Mia. Well, I go into Mia's bedroom and there's Mercedes rinsing the olive tip (what you suction Mia's mouth and nose with) in the water and I'm just smiling at her. She turns to me and casually, but like she's such big stuff, said "Mia needed to get suctioned. So I suctioned her." I tried not to laugh because it was so cute! She continued with, "...what!? If I'm gonna be a doctor, I need to practice!!" I told her that I completely agreed with that statement! =) haha

Family time in the living room

Daddy trying to get Mia to stand

We've been doing pretty well - still trying to continually recover from daily exhaustion, but God's been giving us the strength and energy we need to get through! My sister and I were texting a few weeks ago and she was just saying how she knows it's God who is giving me the strength since for the first 6 weeks I'd be lucky if I got 4 hours of sleep a day, but that I do remind her of Wonder Woman. lol She's so silly. There's no way to explain how in the world you can function when you bring home a child with this amount of care required 24/7. It's such a huge change from just 'visiting' while they're in the hospital because the care is being done regardless if you're the one doing it or not. When you come home, and if you don't have nurses for all the shifts (which we didn't for the first 4 weeks), it is beyond exhausting. We are so grateful for the 3 main nurses -  Carolyn, Melody and Paula -  and for Peggy, our temporary night nurse we have for a month. It was wonderful being able to sleep in bed for at least 4 1/2 hours during the night knowing Mia was being well taken care of for those 3 - 4 nights a week. Robert has been a huge help on weekends, and we sleep on the floor in Mia's room so if she alarms, or if she needs suctioning, or anything, we're right there and between the two of us, one of us will wake up!

Morning snuggles before school

Mia is loving being home - and is thriving! She's so much happier and Mercedes loves having her sissie home - at last!







Now that we're home, I really don't have an excuse to not update the blog more often. I will try my best to remember! (That'll be the tricky part because my memory is not very dependable these days... haha)

Keep us in your prayers - especially the girls with these colder months approaching. Mercedes shared her cold with Mia a few weeks ago, and thankfully it didn't land in her chest, but she is still getting over all the head congestion. She ended up with a double ear infection, too. =(

Blessed,
Rachael

On our way to church

Pumpkins from Pops

Cuddling with Papa at Great Grandma Marion's birthday party in Belmont (Mia's furthest road trip yet!)

Nurse Melody loves playing "Beauty Parlor" on Mia

GO BUSTER POSEY!!! He had just hit his grand slam which ended up winning the series!!! GO GIANTS!