Sadbh slept like a log and woke up around seven. She
was in a very good mood and despite having to fast for her surgery she did not
ask for anything to eat or drink.
Check in at Children’s went well and Sadbh was well behaved
despite the long wait.
Dr. Inglis stopped by before the anesthesiologist
team came to go over the procedure and what to expect afterwards. He reassured
us that we were making the right decision. We have had the upmost respect and
confidence in Dr. Inglis since the first time we met him and we know that he
has Sadbh’s best interest at heart.
Shortly after Dr. Inglis’s visit the anesthesiologist
team came in and got Katie suited up in a bunny suit so she could walk Sadbh
back to the operating room. Sadbh loved the bunny suit and out of nowhere she
asked Katie to hop. We were cracking up.
It’s never been easy for Katie to watch Sadbh get put
under however today was extremely difficult as all of a sudden Sadbh got very
upset and tried to resist.
For the next hour or so, all we could do is wait.
Finally the pager went off, so we set off to meet up with Dr. Inglis. The
procedure went well and Dr. Inglis made the cut in her left vocal cord. Prior
to making the incision he observed the movements in her cords to see if one was
working better than the other. He determined that they were both working
similar to each other however the left side was not as strong as the right, so
with that he made the cut in the left vocal cord.
He went over the surgery in great detail and
addressed all our questions thoroughly.
We had to wait another twenty minutes or so until
Sadbh was ready to be brought back to the patient recovery room. She was so
upset and in obvious discomfort. She had the IV in one hand and kept trying to
grab at her trach asking for us to get the knockout gas out.
Since she was so upset she started to build up quite
a lot of secretions in her trach so I got busy suctioning to clear it out. The
secretions were slightly pink which meant there was some bleeding from the
vocal cords. This was normal and as long as it was not red we were in good
shape.
The suctioning gave Sadbh some instant relief so she
kept asking for me to suction out the knockout gas from her trach. This went on
for the next forty minutes or so and thankfully I had a big batch of suction
catheters in the suction bag.
The nurse staff in the recovery ward is amazing and
one of the nurses gave Sadbh a couple of popsicles just before administrating a
dose of morphine. It still took a while before the morphine kicked in so Sadbh
was still uncomfortable until it did.
Eventually she calmed down and devoured both
popsicles before getting discharged.
Her voice is so much quieter than usual and a little
raspy. Dr. Inglis explained that she will be like this for a week or so as the
vocal cord heals and then she should have her full voice back.
We are going to give her a break from capping her
trach at night for a week also but she should be able to tolerate the cap day
and night as soon as they are healed.
Sadbh was in a much better mood for the rest of the
evening but was definitely not herself.
We gave her a bath and got trach care done as soon as
we could.
Kim and Finn stopped by to say hi and Sadbh perked up
when they arrived. She really likes Finn and they got to spend a little while
hanging out together.
The rest of the evening was spent eating more
popsicles and after dinner she devoured a couple of bowls of ice cream.
Sadbh was out like a light an hour before bedtime so
hopefully she will have a nice nights rest.
Thank you all for the support and well wishes.
All
the best,
Wayne, Katie and Sadbh
