Post - Op

I had been working on updating the surgery post and I wasn't able to upload it so I'll just start over in this post. 

On Tuesday, when Abby was moved to her room, they started getting her pain medications before the meds from surgery wore off.  She was given Tylenol and some morphine.  About an hour later, she still seemed uncomfortable so they gave her more morphine.  The two doses and whatever was left from the surgery knocked her out.  Around 4pm, the surgeon became concerned that she hadn't really woken up, yet.  She had opened her eyes for brief moments, but hadn't had any extended time where she was alert.  She also hadn't given any hunger cues.  They didn't want to try and feed her either until she was alert.  He brought a doctor from the PICU (pediatric ICU) with him to check her out.  He examined her and felt that she was going to be fine and was just taking longer to metabolize the morphine or it wasn't making her feel well.  As a precaution, they moved her to the PICU for the night in case she didn't wake up and needed extra help during the night.

Around 11pm, she finally opened those pretty blue eyes and was alert enough to eat.  Then, she rested comfortably though the night (except when the nurses bugged her!) and ate several times.  In the morning, we headed back to a regular room.  They took morphine off the list of medications she could have because of her reaction so she's been getting scheduled Tylenol and fentanyl as needed.

One of the things we didn't feel prepared for was the amount of pain she would be in.  The nurses have told us that this surgery is one of the most painful surgeries that there are.  The area around the ribs has many nerve endings resulting in painful healing.  She also has a chest tube in that is extremely uncomfortable.  When kids are able to talk, they complain about how much the chest tube hurts.  If we move her we try to be super careful because if the tube moves it sends her through the roof. 

We are waiting for the chest tube to be removed because it will make her so much more comfortable.  The chest tube has been draining fluid from that area and removing extra air.  I'm probably not going to explain this very well, but I'll try. When they removed her lobe, there was a leak that resulted.  They test for leaks during surgery so they know it's not a major pulmonary vessel leaking.  Basically, we are waiting for the leak to seal...aka form scar tissue.  The scar tissue will stop the leak.  This is pretty normal, but causing the tube to need to be in a bit longer.  : (  This leak is what's standing in our way to getting home!  We're hoping it seals up soon.

Abigail's one tough cookie!  She's been doing so well.  Yesterday, we each got one smile out of her.  Today, she's given us a few more and been interested in her toys.  Each day is getting a little better.

Hopefully, we'll be home soon!

Wednesday - Sleeping Comfortably

Thursday - Don't I look better?!?

Playing with daddy's iPhone on Thursday.

Surgery Day

There are TV screens to communicate where your child is at. Abby is at the bottom.  There are 2 screens full of kids having surgery today!

Time has flown by and Abby's surgery day has arrived. We arrived to the University of Minnesota Children's Amplatz hospital around 6:45 to check in and then went back with Abigail for pre-op. During this time, they took her stats and we were able to meet all the people that will be taking care of her. There was a team of anesthesiologists, several nurses, a family service advocate, and the surgeon.  Of course, everyone thought she was adorable. :) She did really well. She couldn't have anything to "eat" after 4:30 am so she ate right before that. You could tell she was getting hungry and a bit cranky because we weren't feeding her.

They aren't anticipating any problems so we are hoping that everything goes smoothly. The surgeon thinks this is the best age to have the mass removed because kids at this age recover quickly and seem to handle the pain better.

I'll keep updating this post as the day progresses by adding to the bottom. The nurse called at 9:10 and told us they had started 5 minutes ago and everything was going well. We're hoping to be reunited before noon.

UPDATE #1 - 11:00 am

The surgeon came to update us.  He's finished with the surgery and everything went well.  The mass was huge taking up three-quarters of her left chest.  He would expect us to notice improvements in her breathing right away. We're so relieved that everything went according to plan and that the mass is out of her body!!  Now, we're just waiting to be reunited with her in recovery.