We were awakened an hour ago with a phone call that Aubrey was going to be sent to the operating room in 20 minutes. Her time had been moved up from 1:00.
We went into overdrive getting ready. We made record time getting to MCG (I know I know, Georgia Children's Hospital, a division of the Georgia Regents University Health System of Georgia Regents University (of Augusta)) while Keli was talking to the dr on my phone about all things that could go wrong. We were supposed to have that talk yesterday but it didn't happen. Oh well. So we rushed into MCG, found the elevator, muttered under our breath words that shouldn't be uttered at its slow speed, found the operating waiting room then were ushered into the hallway to see Aubrey just before she was rolled into the room. Drs with hats and gowns greeted us and told us everything would be ok and we kissed her and they rushed off. We were told it would take 20 min. We were issued a pager and rushed to find coffee. We got back to the third floor, and about 9:40 the surgeon came out and told us everything was good. He gave us a picture of her esophagus and said her larynx is a little immature. That might explain the lack of crying.
So we are back in the NICU waiting for her return. It will take a couple hours for her to sleep off the sedation they gave her so it maybe this afternoon before we see her eyes.
She had a good night too. They stopped her feeding at midnight and she wasn't fussy at all. No other episodes.
Adam
1115 hours.
Dr came by and talked to us. Lots of good news and some it I will have to explain when I get in front of my home computer. This fancy iPhone is great except for long explanations.
She is doing really well. She is still off the oxygen and her peepers are open looking around. She is making little squeaks because her larnyx isn't developed and more so now. So for the next while she will be squeaking because she is still recovering.
Feeding will be back on schedule at 1200 hours.
Adam
1320 hours 1:20 pm
Aubrey is happy now with fresh diaper change and food going into her belly.
Here is what the dr explained to us. Her larynx is very underdeveloped. This is why she is unable to cry very much and also is part of the valve that sends air up the wind pipe and toggles closed to send food down the to the belly. Being that this is so immature, it does not work well, and if it doesn't close as she is feeding, then it will send food down to the lungs which is very bad. The next thing that needs to happen is a swallow test. They take her to the xray machine, and make her swallow a contrast and watch her swallow and analyze how her little valves work. If they are so weak like the Dr thinks, then we have the option of letting it develop more over the next few months. She will continue to be fed through the tube in her nose every three hours while she develops the valve, and a stronger suck-swallow mechanism. This is possibly something that we can do at home. We can have the tube in her nose, feed her, watch her here at home and then take her back after 30 days for more analysis and change out the feeding tube. No surgery required. We don't know about a breathing monitor or oxygen yet, but those would be likely I am sure.
For other good news, she is still off the oxygen. They are giving her a little today for the first couple of feedings since she was slightly sedated this morning, just to make sure that she doesn't have an episode like she has in the past at the end of the feeding. But it will be a small amount and no big deal.
Other good news includes the eyes are still at stage 2. That is a good thing, and she will probably grow out of that. Especially since she won't be on oxygen for now.
They are also going to have a plastic surgeon look at the birth mark on her nose. If it grows larger, then it will have to be removed because it could restrict her airway.
Lastly for the good news, her hair has a very slight red tint, as noted by several experts (Keli and nurses).
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| Pictures of her esophagus. If you look closely you can see two holes deep in the tunnel. Those go to the lungs. |
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| Happy, much more relaxed momma holding a sweet baby girl. |
Oh yeah--in all the excitement of this morning, I forgot to wish myself and Aubrey a happy due date! That's right, Aubrey can be born now!
-Keli
6p.m.
Sweet girl had a good afternoon. She was tired and slept a lot and she didn't have to have her oxygen put back on. They started her full feedings back at 3p.m., so she was happy about that too. She has to have a modified swallow test tomorrow which involves them taking her back down to radiology where she'll drink a barium solution from a bottle. They'll see which way the liquid goes--into her tummy hopefully, and not her lungs--and then we'll know whether she can bottle feed or not. If she can, we'll work on that. If she can't, we'll probably end up going home with her on a feeding tube and have to come back to the hospital in about a month for another swallow test to see if she has improved.
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| talking to dad |
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| it's really tough to leave that face. :( |
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