Hi Everyone! After a hellish morning of switching her surgery back and forth from "right now" to "2 or 3 this afternoon", Golda finally went in for her surgery at 2:30 pm. She did great and they were able to connect her esophagus with minimal pulling. When I spoke to the doctor at 6:20 pm after they were done he said they were waking her up and she was off the respirator already! We were expecting her to be sedated for two or three days because she would still be on the respirator but our little Golda, fighter that she is, was breathing on her own with just a little oxygen right after her surgery.
We went in to see her and found her looking stoned - lol. Her eyes were open and glassy and staring into space. She looked at us and sort of smiled and just laid there looking like she was enjoying it! She had a central line in her neck, a drain in her chest, her Mic-key button had been converted into a g-tube for drainage, a urinary catheter and an IV in her right ankle. They were hooking her up to a glucose drip . After about an hour she went upstairs to the PICU's step-down unit. The room has four beds and two nurses with many docs of various levels. She settled in but was crying so they gave her some morphine. Later on she was still upset so they gave her some toradol. Put together they seemed to take care of her pain and she finally settled into sleep. Jon and I headed out around 10 pm. Needless to say, we crashed upon reaching home!
This morning we realized we had Micah's urologist appointment at 9:15. The plan originally was that we were going to leave Leah with Mema and Pepa, take Micah with us and Jon would drop me off at Golda then take Micah himself. We were so pooped that by the time we got out of here it was too late for him to drop me off first. Good thing though because the urologist recommended surgery. It's not an emergency but we shouldn't wait too long either. A lot of his testicular hydrocoele has resolved but there is still some fluid present (you should have seen the look on Micah's face when the doctor squeezed his testicles!!!) which indicated a bilateral hernia. Since his intestines haven't herniated through the holes yet it's not imperative to do it now, but waiting too long could allow enough time for it to happen. We explained about Golda and he suggested scheduling something in August that we could postpone if she wasn't out of the hospital yet. So Micah is scheduled for his procedure on August 11. He will go to the Ambulatory Unit in the morning and be home that afternoon. The doctor said that by the next day we won't even know he had anything done. Let's hope that's the case!
When I went to see Golda today I found her without her oxygen cannula. I asked the nurse if they had taken her off of the oxygen and she said that Golda took herself off of the oxygen - she refused to keep it on and cried when they tried to make her. They trialed her off it and found that she was sat-ing at 100% so she didn't actually need it anymore! And, just before I arrived, the nurse took out her urinary catheter as well. They had also taken off the big packaging around her ankle IV but had to cover the entire thing up with a sock and a diaper - you know Golda and her tubes! I explained that the sock wasn't nearly enough to keep her at bay as she yanked off the diaper and threw it. Within a half a second she had the sock off and was aiming at the IV. We both grabbed her before she got it and I told the nurse that she had to tape the sock on her foot if she wanted that to do anything.
Golda was doing very well. The pneumothorax was somewhat better but still worrisome so the surgical fellow decided to change the connection between the drain and the receptacle because it was a new type and they thought it might be leaking air. She was conked out on my chest finally fast asleep and he decided to try to do it without moving or waking her. Fortunately, he was successful and she slept right through it! She stayed there for a few hours before waking up with a smile. I transferred her back to her bed, stretched to wake up my body parts and went for some lunch. Later that afternoon the surgeon checked her repeat x-ray and said it was much improved - there was only a little spot of air at the top of her lung and maybe a shadow of air at the periphery. They were pleased with the results. Her skin from the front to the back of her right side is puffy like it's swollen but it is actually air under the skin from the surgery. Everyone has been on top of it and deemed it normal for the situation. Also this afternoon she felt very warm and the nurse found she had 101.5F. She ordered Tylenol for her and put an ice pack under her head and under her tush. The ice packs did the job all by themselves and she never needed the Tylenol.
All in all though our little Golda is doing much better than anyone ever expected! Oh and the surgeon keeps telling us that he cannot believe what a trooper she is - he doesn't know many adults that would be moving their arms after a thoracotomy let alone babies. And here is our Golda laying there waving both arms around and kicking her legs and smiling and laughing! Apparently (according to the 3rd year med student) when they were waking her in the OR after the surgery she opened her eyes, smiled at everyone, waved and babbled away!
Leah is doing better these days too. Since the pediatricians started her on the zantac again she is spitting up much much less and not wheezing at all. I think we have finally gotten her on the right treatment! She is even starting to put on weight at a more reasonable rate again.
Harrison is loving camp! He has a nice tan already and comes home filthy and tired. We are loving it too - lol. He lost his first tooth a couple of months ago and it's starting to grow in now. He looks so cute with this big tooth coming in!
Okay. Gotta go and put some kids to bed now. More later!
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