Sadbh slept like a log
throughout the night and Julie had to suction a number of times.
At 5:50 I went down to take
over from Julie in the hopes that Sadbh would sleep until 7 however Sadbh was
in Julie’s arms and she was very upset. She wanted Katie and since she was so
upset her secretions were building up quite a bit.
I suctioned as quickly as I
could while Julie tried to comfort her. A short while later Katie arrived on
the scene but Sadbh was still very upset.
Sadbh’s trach was filling up
with a lot of secretions and her breathing was becoming more labored. After
calming her down and clearing her trach we contacted the hospital to see if it
was still okay for Sadbh to come in. Unfortunately, we got through to their voice
mail so after leaving a message we decided to get her ready and head in for her
appointment.
Considering that Sadbh had
not eaten or had a drink since last night, she was in a very cheery mood. We
fully expected that she would go stir crazy looking to be fed.
Check in at the hospital was
painless and when Sadbh started to ask for food we broke out one of her new
toys to distract her.
Dr. Inglis appeared in the
waiting room and came over as soon as he saw us. He wanted to double check to
make sure that we were not planning on the Botox injections and he was
confident that Sadbh’s cough and thick secretions would not prevent us from
going forward with her surgery.
The nurse called for Sadbh
as we wrapped up with Dr. Inglis and as soon as we were brought into the pre-op
clinic. She weighed in at 25 lbs and measured 2 feet and 9 inches.
It was not long before they
were ready for her and off she went. Katie accompanied her back to the
operating room and Sadbh went under as soon as they administered the anesthetic.
Less than half an hour later
we were paged to meet with Dr. Inglis and the result was very much the same as
the last bronchoscopy visit. He has noticed some slight improvement and did
mention that we could look at a couple of surgical options to open up her
airway, however he did suggest that we stay the course and wait to see if they
heal themselves eventually.
He did laser off some
granuloma above the stoma site and this will certainly open up her airway.
As soon as we were finished
talking with Dr. Inglis we headed back to the clinic to wait for Sadbh.
After a ten-minute wait we
could hear a very upset little girl coming down the hallway. The sound of her
secretions in her trach get very loud when she’s in distress so we knew
straight away who was coming.
She was so pissed off and
she was really irritated with the IV in her wrist. It was heartbreaking as she
pleaded with me to remove the IV. It took another ten minutes or so to calm her
down and eventually she fell asleep.
When she woke up she was a
lot less irritated and as soon as the nurse could see that she was holding her
food down she removed the IV and oximeter probe.
Sadbh was delighted with
this and not long afterwards we were discharged and we were on our way home.
Sadbh sang all the way home
and was in such a great mood.
It seemed that she got this
burst of energy as soon as we arrived home and she could not stop running
around the house. We were very surprised with how happy she was.
As expected, her secretions
were plentiful and also had a trace of blood after her surgery. We were not
concerned, however we did keep a close eye on her throughout the rest of the
day.
After an hour or so of
burning up her energy it was time for a bath and trach care. It took her a
while to fall into a deep sleep and once her heart rate dropped down to her
normal sleeping rate, we started trach care. She did not budge once and
afterwards she slept for three hours.
Katie even managed to take a
nap for an hour or so. We were all wrecked from such a hectic morning.
Sadbh finally woke up with a
huge smile. As soon as she was up she started a coughing fit. I was able to
clear her trach without any difficulty and was rewarded with another big smile.
As soon as she was up and
dressed, the fun and games continued. She was very eager to help out in the
kitchen and after spotting me with a towel over my shoulder as I prepared
dinner she too grabbed a towel and wore it over her shoulder.
Her appetite had returned in
full and Sadbh had a massive dinner. As a treat we allowed her to watch a
cartoon while she ate and after she finished her dinner she got some ice cream.
Later on she Skyped with her
aunt and cousins in Portland and she could not stop kissing her cousins through
the iPad.
Bedtime was hilarious as she
tried to get as many binkys into her mouth as possible. At one stage she almost
had four in there.
It took a while to get her
off to sleep but she eventually dozed off.
Larissa is back working
tonight so we know Sadbh should get a good nights rest.
All the best,
Wayne, Katie and Sadbh.
No comments:
Post a Comment