Saturday, January 3, 2009
Quick praise this morning…
Evie has had a blocked tear duct since birth which gives her a weepy eye most of the time. (actually, her daddy calls her “Cyclops” in the morning cause she wakes up with one eye gunked closed ususlly).
Her ophthalmologist has delayed doing surgery on it because of her elevated risks under anesthesia. He even proposed swaddling her bambino style and probing it without anesthesia, but commented that it would likely be very traumatic for her. (….um….yeah!)
Needless to say, its been the least of our worries with all her other issues, but when her surgery was scheduled for the Wednesday the 7th, we asked him to cooperate and do his procedure at the same time, but were told emphatically by his personal assistant that he only does surgery on Thursdays.
God can turn the hearts of kings (and doctors!) and we just got a call that he is making an exception and will participate on Wednesday. Praise the Lord!
Thursday, January 1, 2009
So, we have another night reserved at our favorite luxury hotel – Palmetto Richland Memorial Hospital. On Wednesday, Evie will go in for another surgery.
Under anesthesia, she will undergo three procedures:
1) A bronchoscopy. This is a small probe that will take images of her bronchioles and lungs to gain information about any obstructions or malformations
2)Impedance probe. This will be threaded through her nose (much like an NG tube) and will sit in her esophagus over night to measure how much she is refluxing. The thought is that perhaps she is silently refluxing and aspirating causing the chronic lung problems.
3)Yet another catheterization to see if her UTI has cleared
These are relatively minor procedures. The biggest cause of concern is her reaction to anesthesia with the pulmonary problems that she has. Please pray that she will remain healthy and stable and that her lungs will be clear so that the Dr. feels confident about her safety under anesthesia. (I just put her on oxygen for her nap. Her sats are below what they should be and I am praying this is not another cold coming on). We have remained sequestered for a week now and are really praying this will be what she needs to gain strength and rebuild her immune system.
A nurse called yesterday to do a pre-surgery work-up. Our interchange was almost comical. I think she ran out of margin space filling out paper work on this little tyke.
“Has your daughter ever been under anesthesia?” – “Yes”
“Is she currently taking any medications?” – “Yes….(long list)”
“Has she ever been diagnosed with a heart condition?” – “Yes”
“Has she ever been hospitalized other than her heart surgery?” – “Yes, several times”
“Does she have a history of reflux?” – “Yes”
“Ever had pneumonia?” – “Yep, twice”
“Does she have any other chronic illnesses?” – “Yes, (explaination)”
“Has she ever received a blood transfusion?” – “Yes, three times.”
“…um…is there any other past medical history I should know about?” – “Its a long story lady!”
