Back at Home

Meher is back at home with her mother and new baby brother! She is very excited to see her mother again and have a new brother. She is staying with them and is no longer at the Women's Centre during the night.
Her bandages have been taken off as her hands are healing quickly, but she is still wearing small braces on both hands and will need physiotherapy for some time now.

As you can see from the picture below, she is much freer now without the huge bandages!

Recovery

Meher is in high spirits and doing well. As you can see, both of her hands are bandaged (please excuse her attire- its still quite hot and sticky in New Delhi, and with two big casts on her arms, she is feeling the humidity!), so she requires a lot of care and help these days. But she is feeling fine and probably enjoying the attention!

Successful Operation Yesterday

Dr. Khazanchi operated on both of Meher's hands yesterday, fixing the already operated on left hand to avoid more contracture, and straightening two fingers on her right hand. He took some skin grafts from her leg, but as it is a shallow wound, her leg will heal quite quickly. She is at home now and is doing well. Everyone is relieved as all the surgeries are finally over!

Operation on Right Hand

Dr. Khazanchi is operating on Meher's right hand today! She is recovering well from her last surgery and already went in to have the drain removed, and yesterday went in to have her stitches taken out. She is happy and in high spirits as usual.



Also, Meher has decided that she wants to marry Utpal! He is the little boy who also recovered from severe burns as an infant. He is in boarding school, but often stays at the Women's Centre during his vacations. He is currently away from at boarding school, so she must be missing his company. She declared she wants to marry him as he is kind to her, gives her sweets, and lets her watch TV!

Home and Well

Meher is back at home and resting, she is awake and well, although still recovering. Here are some photos of her after surgery and back at the Women's Centre.

Using Two Hands!

Meher's left hand is still bandaged up, but the big cast is gone and her four separate fingers are now visible! Everyone is very excited, as she never was able to separate her fingers on her left hand at all before. She has also started using them slightly, although they are somewhat immobilized still. She is going for saline injections twice a week now, and the expanders are filling slowly. As you can see from the pictures, the expansion is not that visible as yet.

Here she is very happy as she has just returned to the Women's Centre after going to the hospital for saline injections!

Full of Energy and Recovering Well

Meher went back to the hospital for a check up and dressing change yesterday. Everything is progressing nicely and we should be able to start filling the expanders with saline soon. Meher is as lively as ever and is attending classes, playing inside and outside, and interacting with everyone like she always does. The staff at the Women's Centre try to encourage her to play quietly as her leg and hand are still bandaged up, but as it is impossible to make a four year old sit still, she continues to run around.
Her left hand is healing well, but will remain in dressing until it is fully healed, which could take up to 6 or 8 more weeks. The leg wound is very slight and will be completely healed soon (the plastic surgeon had to take some skin from her leg to fully restore her left hand).

Check- Ups

Meher went back to the hospital for follow up care on Monday and Tuesday. She had her dressings changed and her left hand re-examined. She is doing fine and healing well and outside of the hospital she is is as active and lively as ever. Understandably, she does not like going back to the hospital, but now she does not need to have her dressings changed again until next week. We expect to start inserting saline into the expanders in about two weeks. Here she is at home at the Women's Centre:

Home At Last

Meher is home from the hospital resting and recovering. She is staying at the Women's Centre with lots of people to look after her nearby. She was released from the hospital this morning with no complications and has a follow up appointment with Dr. Khazanchi on Monday.
Meher was happy to be home and is eating normally. She is talking and interacting with everyone, although she is still very tired.