As most of you know, soon after we got to Riley's on Monday we discovered Breanna needed surgery immediately. They ran three different hearing screenings on her, and discovered she is partially deaf in her right ear, and she had negative pressure in both ears. Which basically means she was at high risk for the ear drums rupturing and it affecting her hearing even more.
Dr. Agostino spoke with me about the obstruction in her airways, and how if this problem was not taken care of immediately, Breanna would indeed need her second open heart surgery sooner than later. Her not having appropriate SpO(2) levels could/would speed up the progression of her pulmonary stenosis.
When he said, "surgery ASAP" I was thinking, ok, sometime in the next month. OH NO! We walked out of the consult room, and he had me sign a consent for surgery form, and told the nurse he wanted surgery scheduled immediately. Talk about anxiety!!! I called Chris at work, and told him they wanted to do the surgery the next day, as long as they could get clearance from her cardiologist. Because she is such high risk for anesthesia...because she is a cardiac patient, and because she is only 16 months and still under 20 pounds...her cardiologist had to clear the surgery. So, Breanna and I waited around Riley's for 6 hours before the ENT department called to confirm the surgery time. 7:30 a.m. We would need to be at the hospital at 6 a.m. for them to get her ready. They also said there was a good possibility she would need to stay at Riley's for several days post-op.
I went and got us a hotel room, and my friends Evan and Kendra met me and Breanna at the hotel so we could go get some dinner, and keepour my mind off of everything for awhile. We went to Buffalo Wild Wings, and Breanna ate SOOO much food. Maybe she sensed she wouldn't be able to eat normal food for a few day. haha. Anyways, Evan left once we got back to the hotel, but Kendra stayed until Chris arrived, so she could visit with him for awhile too.
Before bed, we got a call from the hospital saying they had changed Breanna's surgery time to 9:30, so we didn't have to be at the hospital until 8 a.m. We were glad we were going to be able to get a little more sleep, but dreading it at the same time, because we knew it was going to be hard on Breanna because she couldn't eat anything.
We got the hospital right at 8, and got her all checked in. We were on the second floor, so she got to walk around and see all the Disney stuffed animals they have around the outside of the glass and she loved it.
A little before 9 we went back in the Pre-Op room, and got her changed into her hospital gown, talked with the surgeon, the anesthesologist, and a few other people. Around 9:30 a.m. they came in and gave her some meds to make her 'relaxed' so she wouldn't have so much anxiety when the nurse came to take her from us to take her to the operating room. Boy, did it ever make her out of it. She could not stop giggling, or keep her eyes open for that matter. Finally, around 10:15 the nurse came to get her, and she only fussed a little bit when I handed her to the nurse.
We went and checked in with the registar in the waiting area, and then went downstairs to get some breakfast. By time we got back up there, I spoke with my mom and dad on the phone to tell them they had taken her back for surgery, and the nurse came walking around to give everyone their updates on how their children's surgeries were going. Our report: Well, the tonsilectomy and adnoidectomy are both complete, they are finishing up putting her tubes in her ears now. And then the surgeon will be up to speak with you. WOW! We were told the surgery would take 2-3 hours...it has been like an hour. About another twenty minutes goes by and the surgeon comes to speak with us. He said,"We had a little bit of a shock. When they went in to look at her voicebox (they thought they might have to take part of it out) they saw that a lobe in her right lung is undeveloped. But other than that surgery exceptionally well. That she was breathing unassisted so they weren't going to put her in a post-op ICU room like originally planned. They were just going to put her in an observation room, and if she did fine throughout the night, we could take her home on Wednesday. " He went on about how large her adnoids were...courtesy of the medication -prostagladin- she was on pre-open heart surgery. Then he chuckled, and said, she's a trooper. Did so much better than we anticipated....but I bet you two are used to that with her, aren't you? Well, at least as used to it as you can be with having a child who has health problems.
We got to go back to recovery about 20 minutes later, and she was awake when we got back there. I held her and she went back to sleep. They even let me carry her from the recovery room to her observation room. Which made me happy, because truthfully, I didn't want to put her down. About an hour after they moved her to observation...she was sleeping comfortably, so Chris and I decided to go back to the hotel and take a nap. When we woke up he left to go home, since he had to go back to work the next day. And I went back to the hospital. When I got there she was just waking up, and they were trying to get her to drink. Thankfully, I had brought her favorite sippy cause she would not drink out of the cup they gave her. As soon as they put her juice in 'her sippy' she drank two full cups~16 ounces. They said if she kept that up, they would take her IV out.
We sat for about an hour, and she was ready to go. She crawled out of my lap and tried taking off out the door...attached to the IV still. The nurse came in and disconnected her, and she and I went for a walk around the hospital. We rode the elevator up and down nearly a dozen times. It is glass and you can see the fountain from it....and she loves it. Needless to say, I was feeling a little sick by time we stopped riding it. But whatever, it was making her happy. We got a wagon and I pulled her around, and she loved that too. I think anything that kept her from being couped up in that room.
Around 9 p.m. I left to go get some dinner and go back to the hotel. I called the hospital to check on her, and they said she had woke back up and the nurse had taken her for another wagon ride around the hall. She fell asleep in the wagon, so they left her there so they wouldn't disturb her, so she was sleeping in her wagon at the nurses station. I'm convinced her nurse just loved her that much that she didn't want to have her out of sight. :)
I got back over to the hospital around 6:30 and the doctor came in not long after. He talked to me about her discharge, managing her pain, etc. and said she was free to go after she ate regular food and held it down. So, around 8 they brought her some scrambled eggs, and she did really well with them. By 8:30 a.m. we were on our way home.
Dr. Agostino spoke with me about the obstruction in her airways, and how if this problem was not taken care of immediately, Breanna would indeed need her second open heart surgery sooner than later. Her not having appropriate SpO(2) levels could/would speed up the progression of her pulmonary stenosis.
When he said, "surgery ASAP" I was thinking, ok, sometime in the next month. OH NO! We walked out of the consult room, and he had me sign a consent for surgery form, and told the nurse he wanted surgery scheduled immediately. Talk about anxiety!!! I called Chris at work, and told him they wanted to do the surgery the next day, as long as they could get clearance from her cardiologist. Because she is such high risk for anesthesia...because she is a cardiac patient, and because she is only 16 months and still under 20 pounds...her cardiologist had to clear the surgery. So, Breanna and I waited around Riley's for 6 hours before the ENT department called to confirm the surgery time. 7:30 a.m. We would need to be at the hospital at 6 a.m. for them to get her ready. They also said there was a good possibility she would need to stay at Riley's for several days post-op.
I went and got us a hotel room, and my friends Evan and Kendra met me and Breanna at the hotel so we could go get some dinner, and keep
Before bed, we got a call from the hospital saying they had changed Breanna's surgery time to 9:30, so we didn't have to be at the hospital until 8 a.m. We were glad we were going to be able to get a little more sleep, but dreading it at the same time, because we knew it was going to be hard on Breanna because she couldn't eat anything.
We got the hospital right at 8, and got her all checked in. We were on the second floor, so she got to walk around and see all the Disney stuffed animals they have around the outside of the glass and she loved it.
A little before 9 we went back in the Pre-Op room, and got her changed into her hospital gown, talked with the surgeon, the anesthesologist, and a few other people. Around 9:30 a.m. they came in and gave her some meds to make her 'relaxed' so she wouldn't have so much anxiety when the nurse came to take her from us to take her to the operating room. Boy, did it ever make her out of it. She could not stop giggling, or keep her eyes open for that matter. Finally, around 10:15 the nurse came to get her, and she only fussed a little bit when I handed her to the nurse.
We went and checked in with the registar in the waiting area, and then went downstairs to get some breakfast. By time we got back up there, I spoke with my mom and dad on the phone to tell them they had taken her back for surgery, and the nurse came walking around to give everyone their updates on how their children's surgeries were going. Our report: Well, the tonsilectomy and adnoidectomy are both complete, they are finishing up putting her tubes in her ears now. And then the surgeon will be up to speak with you. WOW! We were told the surgery would take 2-3 hours...it has been like an hour. About another twenty minutes goes by and the surgeon comes to speak with us. He said,"We had a little bit of a shock. When they went in to look at her voicebox (they thought they might have to take part of it out) they saw that a lobe in her right lung is undeveloped. But other than that surgery exceptionally well. That she was breathing unassisted so they weren't going to put her in a post-op ICU room like originally planned. They were just going to put her in an observation room, and if she did fine throughout the night, we could take her home on Wednesday. " He went on about how large her adnoids were...courtesy of the medication -prostagladin- she was on pre-open heart surgery. Then he chuckled, and said, she's a trooper. Did so much better than we anticipated....but I bet you two are used to that with her, aren't you? Well, at least as used to it as you can be with having a child who has health problems.
We got to go back to recovery about 20 minutes later, and she was awake when we got back there. I held her and she went back to sleep. They even let me carry her from the recovery room to her observation room. Which made me happy, because truthfully, I didn't want to put her down. About an hour after they moved her to observation...she was sleeping comfortably, so Chris and I decided to go back to the hotel and take a nap. When we woke up he left to go home, since he had to go back to work the next day. And I went back to the hospital. When I got there she was just waking up, and they were trying to get her to drink. Thankfully, I had brought her favorite sippy cause she would not drink out of the cup they gave her. As soon as they put her juice in 'her sippy' she drank two full cups~16 ounces. They said if she kept that up, they would take her IV out.
We sat for about an hour, and she was ready to go. She crawled out of my lap and tried taking off out the door...attached to the IV still. The nurse came in and disconnected her, and she and I went for a walk around the hospital. We rode the elevator up and down nearly a dozen times. It is glass and you can see the fountain from it....and she loves it. Needless to say, I was feeling a little sick by time we stopped riding it. But whatever, it was making her happy. We got a wagon and I pulled her around, and she loved that too. I think anything that kept her from being couped up in that room.
Around 9 p.m. I left to go get some dinner and go back to the hotel. I called the hospital to check on her, and they said she had woke back up and the nurse had taken her for another wagon ride around the hall. She fell asleep in the wagon, so they left her there so they wouldn't disturb her, so she was sleeping in her wagon at the nurses station. I'm convinced her nurse just loved her that much that she didn't want to have her out of sight. :)
I got back over to the hospital around 6:30 and the doctor came in not long after. He talked to me about her discharge, managing her pain, etc. and said she was free to go after she ate regular food and held it down. So, around 8 they brought her some scrambled eggs, and she did really well with them. By 8:30 a.m. we were on our way home.
She did phenominal on the car ride home. She has been a little cranky at times, but nothing like I would have expected her to be considering everything she had done. She has been running around the house, playing with the kids, and laughing like usual.
On a lighter note, I received my Uppercase Living Products I ordered last week. I got them all put up last night, and I couldn't be more pleased with the way they turned out..so I thought I would share them.
I love those Uppercase things, I just can't commit to any.
ReplyDeleteSo glad her surgery went well. My goodness that must have scared you to death. I know I would have been. Kids are so much stronger than we think.
glad her surgery went so well!
ReplyDeletelove the uppercase living stuff! :)