Lisandra Sanatis looks at her twin daughter, Teresa Tapia, as daughter Maria Tapia looks on Children?s Hospital of Richmond at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Va., Thursday Dec. 1, 2011. The conjoined twins were separated during an operation at the hospital Nov. 8, 2011. The twins are expected to be released from the hospital Friday and are expected to go back home to the Dominican Republic before Christmas. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)
Lisandra Sanatis looks at her twin daughter, Teresa Tapia, as daughter Maria Tapia looks on Children?s Hospital of Richmond at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Va., Thursday Dec. 1, 2011. The conjoined twins were separated during an operation at the hospital Nov. 8, 2011. The twins are expected to be released from the hospital Friday and are expected to go back home to the Dominican Republic before Christmas. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)
Maria Tapia, and TeresaTapia play in a playroom at Children?s Hospital of Richmond at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Va., Thursday Dec. 1, 2011. The conjoined twins were separated during an operation at the hospital Nov. 8, 2011. The twins are expected to be released from the hospital Friday and are expected to go back home to the Dominican Republic before Christmas. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)
Lisandra Sanatis holds her daughter, Teresa Tapia, in their room at Children?s Hospital of Richmond at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Va., Thursday Dec. 1, 2011. Sanatis' conjoined twin daughters were separated during an operation at the hospital Nov. 8, 2011. The twins are expected to be released from the hospital Friday and are expected to go back home to the Dominican Republic before Christmas. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)
Maria Tapia, and TeresaTapia play in a playroom at Children?s Hospital of Richmond at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Va., Thursday Dec. 1, 2011. The conjoined twins were separated during an operation at the hospital Nov. 8, 2011. The twins are expected to be released from the hospital Friday and are expected to go back home to the Dominican Republic before Christmas. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)
Maria Tapia, and TeresaTapia play in a playroom at Children?s Hospital of Richmond at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Va., Thursday Dec. 1, 2011. The conjoined twins were separated during an operation at the hospital Nov. 8, 2011. The twins are expected to be released from the hospital Friday and are expected to go back home to the Dominican Republic before Christmas. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)
RICHMOND, Virginia (AP) ? Doctors expect two formerly conjoined toddlers from the Dominican Republic to return home by Christmas after recovering from separation surgery in Virginia.
Maria and Teresa Tapia underwent complicated, nearly daylong surgery on Nov. 8 at the Children's Hospital of Richmond at Virginia Commonwealth University. In a series of procedures, the surgical team divided the twins' liver, pancreas and other shared organ systems and reconstructed their abdominal walls.
"They are enjoying life now that they're separated," said their mother, Lisandra Sanatis. "They enjoy seeing themselves as individuals."
While they're getting accustomed to exploring their surroundings separately, they still stay near each other and hold hands when they walk.
After being in Richmond for several months now, Sanatis says she and her daughters are ready to leave the confines of the hospital and return to their family in their native country.
"We're missing our family, and the girls miss their little brother, Lisander," Sanatis said.
They also haven't acquired a taste for American fare ? including hospital meals ? preferring instead to get takeout Dominican food, including the traditional beans and rice and other dishes.
Well-wishers have extended their support, including Rocio Castanos, a friend of the Dominican first lady who popped in Thursday for a visit on the twins' last full day in the hospital. Castanos, who lives in Richmond, brought each girl a stuffed animal and offered to cook them some sancocho, a traditional Dominican soup.
Dr. David Lanning, a surgeon and head of the medical team that is caring for the 20-month-old girls, says they have been recovering well.
Maria, the smaller of the two, weighs about 19 pounds (8.6 kilograms), and Teresa weighs about 26 pounds (11.8 kilograms). Lanning expects the disparity in their weight, caused by the configuration of their small intestines and blood flow from the liver, to gradually even out.
Maria's pancreas is slow to produce digestive enzymes, but she is taking replacement enzymes. Teresa is undergoing treatment on the incision where the girls were separated.
The toddlers were scheduled to leave the hospital Friday. They will remain in Richmond while they undergo outpatient therapy to relearn walking and otherwise reorient their movements now that they're no longer attached.
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