Get ready it's a big week...

For our family this is a big week! For Grace this is one of the biggest in her life. She is having her "big" surgery Thursday. She has had multiple surgeries in the past but this one is big for several reasons. If successful, this will improve the intelligibility of her speech where she can communicate with the average Joe. As it is now, although she has great things to say, we are really the only ones who understand what it is she is saying. I love that Judd and Caroline can understand her just as well as we can and have never asked why her words sound so different. We did our pre-op appointments yesterday and have "the plan" for what to expect but also know to expect the unexpected. Surgery is planned for Thursday morning at 9:00 will take 3 to 3 1/2 hours. They will do the trach first and then the flap and she will be in ICU 5-7 days heavily sedated. Once they wake her, we will move to the progressive care unit and there we will begin learning all the care and things that go with the trach. Once we are in that unit she will be alert and in a more private room. Our stay in that unit will be about 7 days. We are planning on our little "vacation at TCH" to be 14 days. I think by the time we get back I will even miss doing laundry which I currently despise!

This is a good thing for Grace and being objective we know that but our hearts are heavy and unsettled. Not the way I wish we felt but it is and so it goes...