The unbearable lightness of relief

When our plastic surgeon, Stacey Folk, came in to our hospital room at 8:30 am to check up on QQ and write our release orders, she told us that it was already 60 degrees outside, and that we needed to go home and go straight to the park for the afternoon.
Which is exactly what we did.
As you can see, we didn't even change...Q is still wearing the clothes she had on at the hospital.
We just grabbed the dog and a bag of bread for the ducks and went. By that time it was in the '70s.
It wasn't a banner duck day (some days, there are dozens of different species milling in carpets on the surface of the lake) but we were able to attract a small flotilla of Canada geese with our breadcrumbs.
They are handsome fellows.
These at our Berkeley lake are a bit more hesitant than the geese we usually find at Sloan's lake, and took some time to warm up to us.
QQ waiting to see if they'll come up on the bank.
Once they did, she was eager to hop out of her stroller and feed them.
After our frightening day, we made sure to keep an extra tight hold on her near the water.
One goose growing bolder.
QQ has no fear of the geese - in spite of the fact that they're as big as she is. And yes, she has had her little fingers snapped by their long bills before. Doesn't phase her. They don't hurt.



I can't even describe to you the sense of vast relief that rolled over us in waves all afternoon.
There is also a physical hangover from a shock that great. Our bodies ached from head to toe the day after the surgery, as if we'd been in a fight. But even that couldn't dull the brilliant, sun-yellow glow of what felt to me like a new lease on life. We had undergone a trial-by-fire, and come out the other side, hardly even scorched.
Here was our beautiful daughter, warm and solid and full of energy.
Except for a very slight fever that came and went, you'd never guess at the ordeal she'd been through.
She doesn't even need her tylenol or ibuprofen, and doesn't seem uncomfortable. Even most of the itching seems to be gone. I give her a half dose of tylenol with each meal, just as a preventative, but there is nothing like the constant discomfort she suffered after her first surgery, which left us sleepless for weeks.
Yesterday, she amazed us by taking a three hour nap, and then sleeping through the entire night without a peep, her arms flung high over her head and her body utterly relaxed. It is a great boost for our sanity and well-being, this sound sleep, and it makes me glad to see her little body getting the rest it needs in order to heal and recuperate. As you can imagine, however, I am back to sneaking into her room every half our or so to make sure she's still breathing. I think it will take me a while to get over that nervous tick again.
We are amazed and profoundly grateful for what we have, for our wonderful, loving little family.