Sophie's Surgery

Sophie in her gown in the pre-op room

I am happy to say that Sophie's surgery for her tube placement and her Laryngoscopy went well.

Sophie started her day very early at 5:15am so that we could be at the surgery center by 6am. Her surgery was scheduled for 7am but the doctor was late because he was treating a patient at the hospital next door. Sophie was a trooper even though she was very tired and hungry. The anesthesiologist took her back at 7:30am. They initially put her to sleep with a mask for the tube portion and then they started an IV to administer more anesthesia while they did the Laryngoscopy. The procedures took about 35 minutes and then doctor came out to talk with us.

Dr. McKenna said he suctioned out a lot of mucus from her ears before he placed the tubes. He explained that because the mucus had been removed she will all of a sudden hear much better which may be alarming to her when she wakes up. Then he showed us the pictures he took from the Laryngoscopy (pretty cool). She has a little redness at the opening of her esophagus which would be expected with reflux and she has had a cold. He actually would have expected to see more irritation than he did. Her vocal cords look great and have no damage to them. Her epiglottis which is what needs to mature more to correct her swallow defect looked good with no abnormalities.  We are so thankful for a good report.

She was still trying to wake up when they brought her to us in the recovery room. She still had her IV in and was hooked up to a monitor. After about a minute or two she became very unhappy. She was a little better once they removed the IV from her foot but was still disoriented and pretty unhappy. After about 25 min in recovery we were able to leave. She stopped crying once we left the building and went to sleep in her car seat almost immediately. She slept almost 3 hours and then was awake this afternoon for a little while - ate well and played. Still a little tired from all the activities of the morning so is back to sleep.

John and I are so grateful for all your prayer and support. We were thankful for good staff and doctors this morning. (The anesthesiologist told Sophie this morning that her doctor (Dr. McKenna) was the doctor for a lot of rock stars.) It is certainly an answer to prayer that she doesn't have any damage or serious irritation to her voice box or esophagus with how severe her reflux is. Praise God!