The Olson Zoo Weblog

What an eventful week! The week started out with Helen having her adenoids removed successfully and coming home on the same day. We were actually expecting to stay overnight because of her small size and because she had heart surgery just three months ago. Well…she was such a trooper they decided she did not need to stay overnight! What a blessing! She was able to come home and sleep in her own bed peacefully, the WHOLE night!!

That same day she wowed us by starting to crawl on her hands and knees in the pre-op area. We had been told that she might not do this because she was already two and hadn’t yet. She is also extremely flexible and we thought that she might not have the muscle tone to do it. But of course, she is amazing! Now she mixes the hands and knees crawl with her army drag one leg scoot.

Laura is continuing to learn to read! Wow, I can’t believe it but she is four and reading! She is definitely smart like her dad. Jeff has put a couple of games on the “family” computer for her to play. One is Roller Coaster Tycoon. She is able to add trees and all sorts of landscape to the amusement park without reading how to do it. Yesterday she even did something that Jeff wasn’t sure how to do. He says, “Get used to it!” I am sure that she will soon pass us both up on her computer smarts as soon as she can read everything.

As many of you know, Helen had an adenoidectomy today.  We’re happy to report that she is doing just fine.  The whole procedure only took about an hour and we were able to bring her home around 3:00 this afternoon.  She will be on some painkillers and antiobiotics for a week or less.

Thank you for all your prayers!

Helen is growing also! She has come such a long way in the three months that we have had her. When she first came to us she could not sit unattended. Since then, she has mastered that, learned to scoot with her arms and one leg, stand while leaning, take steps while holding on to our hands, and now today she has learned to sit up. Thanks to her amazing flexibility she lays on her stomach, pulls her knees under her tummy, walks her hands to her knees and brings her feet around to the front by doing the splits! I was able to catch it on video right after she had done it for the first time.

Helen’s speech is progressing as well. She says “Hi!” and something like “Bye-Bye” appropriately. She also says “Mama”, “BaBa” (chinese for Daddy), and “PaPa” but I am not sure if she is really calling us. A couple of nights ago, she started saying “Tickle”. She just loves to be tickled. Any kind of contact physically and face time are her favorite things.

Helen continues to do very well at recovering from her heart surgery two weeks ago. In fact, if you didn’t look inside her shirt to see the incision, you would not be able to tell.

She had a checkup visit with the cardiologist today, and everything checked out fine. She has gained almost 12 ounces in the 2 weeks since the surgery, so that is really great! She is eating and drinking really well, and she is pretty much back to the same level of mobility (creeping and rolling).

Please continue to keep little Helen in your prayers, that there will be no issues that come up, and that she will continue to grow and thrive.

Here’s a recent picture of Helen:

I’m really happy to let you all know that Helen is coming home from the hospital today! The cardiologist saw her this morning and gave the ok.

Helen will need some gentle care for the next few weeks, but she is really doing well. Thanks for all your prayers…we really appreciated it!

Helen has left the ICU and moved to a regular pediatric care unit. She had some fluid around her lungs on Friday, but that has subsided. All in all she is doing very well! She’s eating solid foods and she has been playing with toys on the floor. She’s no longer tethered to the bed by all those tubes & wires, so Rachel has been able to walk around with her.

There’s no definite word yet on when she’s coming home, but it may be as early as Monday. Thanks for your continued prayers!

Here’s a couple pictures of Helen from today (Saturday):

Helen continues to recover in the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) at Children’s Hospital in Minneapolis. She had her chest tubes and ventilator tube removed this morning. She was moved to a more private room so she could have fewer distractions. She was awake during much of the day, but she was kind of crabby and we tried to get her to sleep more. Every time she was offered a drink (glucose water only at this point), she sucked it down very quickly, which is a good sign (since she has never been a very fast bottle drinker).

The nurses think she’ll leave the ICU either Friday or Saturday; from there she’ll go to a regular care unit in the hospital.

Here’s a picture of Helen with Rachel holding her. You can tell that Helen is not quite herself yet:

We are very relieved to report that Helen’s surgery today was very successful and her prognosis is very good. She had the surgery at Minneapolis Children’s Hospital to fix her heart defect. She had a ventricular septal defect, which is a hole between the pumping chambers.

After meeting with the anesthesiologist, surgeon, and several of the nursing staff, we went into the OR with Helen at about 1:00 pm today. We were there when they put her to sleep and then we said goodbye to her. After about an hour of preparation, the surgery itself began around 2:00 pm.

At about 3:15 pm we got word that the surgical team had been able to successfully close the defect. A patch was not needed; the stitches alone were enough to close it. They also removed some excess “muscle bundles” that could later obstruct the valve. At that point Helen was taken off the heart-lung machine and an echocardiogram showed that the hole had been completely closed, with no leakage.

At about 5:00 pm we were allowed to visit Helen in the Pediatric ICU. She is laying on a bed and she looks so very tiny on it. She has a large bandage over the incision where her chest was opened to access her heart. She has many tubes and monitoring devices on her little body. Helen is currently sedated and is on a ventilator; they are telling us that the ventilator will probably be removed on Thursday morning.

It is hard for us to see Helen in this helpless state, but the nursing staff is very competent and kind to us, and very good at explaining what they are doing. Rachel has enjoyed “talking shop” (as a former ICU nurse), although there’s a lot of differences between pediatric and adult ICU care.

We appreciate all the prayers that have been spoken on our behalf. Thank you so much! Please continue to pray for a quick and event-free recovery for Helen. She will likely be in the ICU for a couple more days, and then spend another few days in a regular nursing unit until she is discharged, sometime around the middle of next week if all goes well.

As many of you who are reading this may know, our newly-adopted daughter Helen has a heart condition called VSD (ventricular septal defect). We had an appointment with a pediatric cardiologist in late August at the Children’s Heart Clinic in Minneapolis, and after taking a careful look at her heart and discussing options, we agreed that she will have open heart surgery. It is scheduled on Sept 12th at 1:00 pm. Please pray for little Helen and for us as we care for her. We have been told that she will be in the hospital (Children’s Minneapolis) for 5-7 days after the surgery. Rachel will probably stay at the hospital most of the time. Jeff will take some time off work but may go in to work some days (we’ll see). Laura will spend some of her time with her grandparents and/or aunts and probably some time at home with Jeff.

This is not really a surprise…we’ve known all along that Helen would probably need surgery to repair this defect (which is a hole between the two ventricles in the heart). The surgery is not without some risk, although it’s a procedure that is done quite often and the surgical teams are very skilled. We really don’t have an option to not do it…without the surgery her heart would keep working harder and harder and eventually she could have congestive heart failure and permanent lung damage. So we leave it in God’s hands and trust that he will take care of little Helen and make her well.

Thank you for your prayers.

Here’s a recent picture of Helen.  Go to her photo album for more pictures.

If you’re interested in learning more about VSD, these are good resources:

• http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/ventricular-septal-defect/DS00614
• http://www.ohsu.edu/heart/vsd.htm

Well, we have made it back home to Minnesota! We arrived around 1:00 pm on Wednesday, and Len & Mary Lou (Rachel’s parents) picked us up. Joel & Becky Sutton (our pastor and his wife) and their two kids also met us at the airport. (Hope Sutton, their daughter, is also an adopted Chinese kid.)

We tried to stay up as long as possible to get back on a normal schedule, but I could only make it until about 4:00 pm. I woke up once at 9:30 pm when Rachel and Laura went to sleep, but then I slept until 5:30 am. It’s about 4:00 pm right now, and I’m not too tired, so I think I’m doing pretty well.

It is great to be back in our own house again. I especially am appreciating the soft mattress on our bed. We also enjoyed eating Chipotle, one restaurant that hasn’t made it over to China (yet, anyway).

Helen is adjusting to her new home. She met our dog Martha, and they seem to be ok with each other.

The weather here in Minnesota is hot, but after southern China it really doesn’t feel so bad to us. That’s one bright side to the extremely hot weather we endured over there!

Here are a couple pictures from our journey home: