Back in the Hospital

It all started just after coming home from the NICU when Emily met with her speech for the first time.  She heard some really noising breathing that was localized in her throat.  The noises continued to be persistent, so when I took Emily to her checkup at the end of June I mentioned the noises and asked for and ENT (ears, nose and throat) referral.  She put in the referral and told me to call, yet she would also call to get Emily in sooner.  We were able to get in to see the doctor the next Monday. 

At the ENT appointment the doctor tried to look with the scope in office, yet he didn't see anything as they can't pass the vocal cords with Emily being awake.  He pushed thinks around in is schedule and got her in the beginning of July.  With everything moving so fast it scared me as to what they would find. 

We came into the hospital the afternoon of July 2.  The doctor was to do a scope and fix what he found was making her breathing noises.  We ended up waiting in pre-op for an extra two hours before they were ready to take her back.  The surgery was about and hour when the doctor can and talked to us.  He found and was able to laser a couple a good sides cysts that were  just passed her vocal cords and then he used a balloon to stretch her hair way.  They said they see these mostly because of her intubation she had when she was born.  Afterwards, Emily went to ICU with a breathing tub for swelling with the plan to take it out the next day. 

A little bit of what the doctor found

 

coming out od surgery

Recovery was a lot harder than first thought as they had to keep Emily pretty heavily sedated or she would fight the ventilator.  With her sedated her heart rate dropped into the 60 and the doctors didn't know why.  At first it scared them and they would give her stuff to bring it back up.  This was until they saw she was doing everything needed like keeping her color and good pules.  They were puzzled yet not scared as much.

It took three tries and five days later before they were able to take the tub out.  Because of all the sudation she started to have withdrawal that night I got no sleep as we tried to figure out how to best help her.  The doctors finally gave her some oxycodone and Emily was able to calm down enough to fall asleep.

Yea! no more tube

Emily was washed in the ICU for another day before being moved to the regular floor unit.  Before coming home, she still needing to get off the oxycodone and another medication that was to help the swelling.  She had a swallow study the following Monday to see if Emily could safely swallow.  She didn't pass so we came home on Tuesday on the feeding tub and will go back in 3-4 weeks to try again.  On the positive side, Emily was able to get off the oxygen.  It is amazing what giving her an airway can do.

Emily retained a lot of fluid when she was intubated. 
You can see her swallow eyes