Ella the Indestructable

I am stumped. The doctor said 1-2 weeks recovery period. One week out of school. Pain with swallowing and talking. Drowsiness for at least 3 days. Diet full of soft foods. Pain medication every 4-6 hours around the clock.

Oh, contraire mon frere.

Ella's healing process seems to be in-human. Even from the first hour out of surgery, she was telling all of us that she was feeling very little pain. To be honest, I didn't buy it! I even pulled the nurse to the side and told her not to believe Ella (terrible, I know). The nurse asked Ella to show her how she was feeling with a chart full of faces. The chart ranged from a very smiley face (no pain) to a very sad face (a lot of pain). She proceeded to show the nurse the happiest face on the chart just hours out of surgery, so I became a little sceptical. To my defense, Ella has had a record of not being completely honest with us about her health because she is scared to "be sick" and scared to go to the doctor or take medicine. So as her mother, I felt as though I needed to protect her from . . . herself, and make sure she was getting adequate pain control - especially since she just had her neck cut into and had many things (including a portion of bone) taken out! But, maybe I was wrong?

For the past 2 days we have been telling Ella to:
"slow down"
"quiet down"
"put your sister down"
"are you sure you want to eat that?"
"stop dancing"
"stop running"
"stop yelling"
"stop jumping on the couch"

So we have surrendered to her super-human healing and are sending her back to school tomorrow. She needs it! Of course we will be careful with her and make sure she sits out of Physical Eduction and Recess, but this girl needs herself some school!!

All the prayers have been answered, my friends. Thanks to all!