Surgery Update- YIKES!!!

So, the ENT just came out and talked to us- he was all done with his part (the scopes and looking at her ears), so now we’re just waiting on the ABR to be finished before we can see her. 

Best news first- NO tubes!  I KNEW it!  I couldn’t figure out how she could have NO ear infections and have fluid.  He said they looked PERFECT!  Woohoo!

Now on to the NOT so good news.  She has 3 (count ‘em, folks- THREE) points of narrowing in her airway.  All of which he’s blaming on her being a preemie, and being intubated so many times on a preemie airway.  The least severe is the voice box- it’ll be a quick fix where they can “snip” (don’t you love those technical terms"???) some of the tissue. 

Then a little below her voice box is another, more moderate, stenosis near her trachea.  This one he figures he could do a little balloon to inflate the area and enlarge it, so although it’s there, it’s not a huge deal.

The third one, though, is pretty severe.  It’s in her windpipe.  He showed us pictures, and it’s pretty scary. 
There’s no hole where a hole should  be… 

It looks like there’s probably a blood vessel that’s wrapped around her windpipe that’s doing the constricting.  If that’s the case, they’ll go in and try to “lift” it off.  But, in order to figure that out, they’re admitting us overnight, doing an EKG and a heart ultrasound tonight, and an MRA (magnetic resonance arterial) tomorrow to see what’s going on.  Then we’ll make a plan after that.  It doesn’t sound like they’ll let us go home until they can figure out how to release the most severe narrowing. 

Once we get that one fixed, we’ll come back and have them fix the other two. 

So one couple of hour “in-and-out” procedure has turned into a several day fiasco.  But, on the upside, at least we won’t have a kid at home with a severely compromised airway. 

The OR just called and said that we had at least another 40 minutes or so for the ABR (the sedated hearing test, for those fortunate enough to have never dealt with it).  Once that’s done, they’ll send us to recovery for a while, and  then up to a room. 

Good thing I packed a bag, just in case, with my clothes.  And toothbrush.  I like having my toothbrush…

And now, for some eye candy…  Thankfully they have a really fun play room to use when you’re waiting for the anesthesiologist to come and get you.  The scrubs they gave Piper were only about six inches too  long in the waist, so I made the executive decision to put her back in her clothes to play in.  Piper had a B-L-A-S-T!!!