Surgery

Emily in her restraints with Tucker!

My sassy girl is not happy with her restraints on.

On Feb. 9Th, Emily had her surgery to close her palate, cut her tongue tie, fix a fistula and have tubes put in her ears. I know, poor girl! Emily had fluid behind her eardrums the last couple times we went to the doctor, but never an earache so we decided to put tubes in her ears. Also hoping that this would help with her hearing. Emily has always been very loud and I haven't got her hearing tested yet, but the tubes have done a super job at allowing her to hear better. She isn't loud all the time now and I love it!

On the 9Th, we got up very early and headed to the hospital. My mom came with us and I was glad to have some company during the wait. After we checked in we were taking to a room where they checked her vitals and we changed her into hospital pj's. We were visited by Dr. Schultz (the ENT), Dr. Doerr (the plastic surgeon), several nurses and the anesthetist too. Emily did so well, she was a little frightened but warmed up to everyone quickly. The time came for them to take her back and thankfully they didn't start any IV's until she was sleeping. That made mommy very happy. The only bummer was they took her out of my arms and didn't let me say goodbye, it broke my heart. I understand that they don't want the child to get worked up, but my baby and her first surgery, really? Give me a moment with her, it was very upsetting for me. We waited about 2 1/2 hours and then they let me go to the recovery room to be with her. I walked through the recovery door and heard her crying immediately and the mommy in me came out, where is my baby girl NOW! Poor Emily, she was crying and all upset. There was blood dripping from her nose, due to the hole going up into her nose. They were trying to give her oxygen and she just couldn't get comfortable. Oh, how I wanted to make her pain go away. They let me hold her and we tried to lay down, but she was so upset and crying. They finally gave her some medicine to calm her down a bit and she fell asleep for a little bit. Dr. Doerr came in and talked to me which was very nice and said everything went well and now we just needed to heal. When Emily woke up she was a lot calmer and we got to go home. My poor peanut just sat with me and grandma all day. Her arms had to be in restraints so that she would not suck her thumb and ruin the surgery. Her nose continued to drip for a few days but finally stopped. And the next 3 weeks Emily was on pretty much a liquid diet. I have gotten very creative with baby food, making soups and smoothies. She is doing so well. She is used to the restraints and finally eating better too. She has lost 4 pounds and down to 22 lbs now. She is so small already it is hard to see her lose more weight.

On March 1, we went for our follow up appointment with Dr. Doerr and he said that we had to be on liquids for another 3 weeks. Her palate is healed partly, but there is an area that he is not sure if it still has a hole or not. UGH! My heart sank, I thought it looked good, but I guess not. So we are still using the restraints and eating liquids. I think it has been harder on me than Emily. She is such a trooper and doing so well, it is amazing. I am so proud of her and how strong she is. We are praying that she will heal in the next 3 weeks so we won't have to do another surgery this year. It is hard to believe that Emily has been home 6 months already! She has changed so much and I couldn't be happier with her. She is such a joy to have in my life.