Nissen News

A's surgery lasted over four hours. The otolaryngologist also scoped her airway to see if it is viable - which, wonderful news, he say it is! That means that the trach can come out as soon as we finish healing from this surgery (a nissen fundoplication). The recovery is going to be longer than we thought because they had to do it "open" instead of laproscopically, which means she has a three to four inch incision running vertically between her bellybutton and her nipples. Still, trach removal is within sight!

Since the surgery, A's had a bit of a hard time. Her stomach has been unable to empty. We've done two rounds of pedialyte infusions, which were still in her stomach after eight hours - causing her a fair amount of discomfort. We drained the stomach twice (that's fun!), and have just left her empty since midnight last night.

This morning the doctors (not the primary surgeon, though) decided that we would try bolus feeds of pedialyte to see if she can process smaller amounts. The anesthesiologist said that if she can do that, then she will try to take the epidural out tomorrow afternoon.

Our big concerns, obviously, are, first, that she's not tolerating the feeds. Next steps for that, if the bolus doesn't work, are x-rays and ultrasounds, and, ultimately, surgery. We're hopeful that it won't go that far. Second, she is showing some signs of respiratory infection - we're waiting on cultures for that. This is typical for her, as you know. And, finally, the epidural site is showing a tad of redness, which, if it increases, would mean pulling that out and going to IV pain meds - which make her groggier.

She's really a fighter and is cheerful between the sticks and pokes that are routine in the hospital. She pulled her IV out a bit ago while fending off the white-coated-meanies, so I'm anxously awaiting the arrival of the picu team to re-insert. Yuck.