Archive for July, 2004

45 weeks old

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phone pre-op Friday, 7/23 

mama arrived Sunday, 7/25

outpatient surgery

grandmother to go home tomorrow

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44 weeks old

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43 weeks old

See More Photos here 

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43 weeks old

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 43 weeks old

leah.mpg

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We were discharged this morning from the hospital and got home about 12:00.  We spent most of the time holding her and comforting her.  After that, it was all over.  She was pretty much back to her old self.  And didn’t let the fact that she had this huge cast on her leg stop her from doing what she wanted to do.

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42 weeks old

Mama arrived on Sunday, 7/11 

 

We arrived at the hospital for surgery at 5:00 am.  They gave Leah some stuff to swallow to make her drowsy.  She became absolutely tipsy and was singing and laughing.  Everybody in the pre-op waiting area was delighted by her antics.  The Nurses gave her a “Best Baby Award” sticker.

 

The pediatric ENT surgeon inserted the silicone tubes in both her ears.  He said everything went fine and she was resting comfortably.  He also drained fluid from both ears, there was more in the right ear than in the left.

 

The orthopedic surgeon started around 9:15 am.  The surgery took about 1 hour 45 minutes.  Pins were inserted…  one in the top of the foot and one in the bottom of the heel.  She also lengthened two tendons by using a zigzag cut and moved another tight tendon on the outside of the foot that was pulling the foot out.

 

One of my main concerns is that the FSS has a characteristic of malignant hyperthermia (MH), which is a reaction to anesthesia due to muscle contractures.  It has not been diagnosed in Leah, but could become an issue during surgery and may be life threatening.  I spoke with the anesthesiologist before the surgery and he assured me he would use a type of intravenous anesthesia that was non-MH.  He will try to use a laryngeal bag for oxygen but it may not work due to the cleft palate.  He may have to intubate manually, but that also may be difficult due to the size of her mouth, at which point he will use fiber optic.  There were no problems with the anesthesia.  After the surgery, the anesthesiologist informed us that the intubation for her cleft palate repair will be very “challenging” and he wants to be informed as soon as we have a surgery date.

 

When I went back to the recovery room, she was crying and thrashing around a good bit.  It took about 3 or 4 of us to hold her down so that the nurse could finish hooking her up to the monitors.   Finally, I got to hold her, which was very difficult because of IV tubes and monitor wires hooked up everywhere.  Leah couldn’t decide whether she wanted me or her Grandmother to hold her, so we were passing her back and forth a lot trying to keep her calm.  Leah appeared to handle the surgery very well.  She wasn’t concerned about having a huge cast on her leg.  However, she wanted to be held all the time.  My mother and I had to take turns holding her and sleeping with her.  Whenever the nurses came in to check her vitals, she would start crying, and being moving about.  Moving about was okay, but she was still hooked up to an IV and monitors, plus we had to keep her leg elevated on a pillow to reduce swelling.  It didn’t take her long to start taking a bottle again, which was a good sign.

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exam orthopedic surgeon

pre-op

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41 weeks old

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