Post Op Day 1

It is pretty early; As tired as I was last night, I am surprised that I'm awake. I guess I am ready to go see my baby.

Emma Kate had a good day yesterday. And by good, I mean that after surgery it was pretty uneventful. She was in pain for the latter part of the day after her nerve block started to wear off. I know I sort of touched on this before, but this surgery is supposed to be pretty painful to recover from. Apparently the anytime you have a thoracotomy (an incision in the chest to gain access to thoracic organs) it is painful. Her incision starts right around the bottom of her right shoulder blade, running horizontally under her right arm. Its not a very big incision, but because there are so many nerve endings and muscle tissues in that area, its quite painful to recover from. As any mother feels about her child, I hate that Emma Kate will have to endure any pain whatsoever.

Anesthesia gave her a nerve block during the procedure to help prevent any pain for 6-12 hours after surgery. We could definitely tell a change in her demeanor when it wore off. She got Morphine and Versed several times yesterday. She has been intubated (had a breathing tube) all day yesterday. Our nurse told us that this would help with pain, since breathing might be more difficult because of the placement of the incision and the pain in that area. They did a few trials last night, slowly weaning her off the breathing tube. She did fine, but she had several doses of morphine in order to help her deal with increased pain. The prediction is that she will be extubated this morning.

She has never had any problems in the past being weaned off the breathing tube, so I feel she will do fine. The tube goes down your throat and into the lungs, passing your voice box on the way. (Not the medical definition of being intubated, but you get the idea). She normally has a really "scratchy" voice for several days after being exubated. After her first surgery, she made no sounds at all, even when she was visibly crying. It was so pitiful.

When her nerve block and pain meds started wearing off yesterday, it was hard to see her. She is basically immobile, because of her breathing tube and because her arms are basically tied to the bed. Babies at this age always are, because if something is in your mouth that you don't want to be there, your first reaction is to reach up and grab it and take it out. The restraints don't hurt her, but I can imagine feeling pretty helpless when I can't move my arms the way I want to.

This was taken post-op Glenn, but this is very similar to how she looked yesterday.

The plan today is to see if she can be extubated and see how she does. Then she will probably start being fed! (First time in 11 days!! Yay!) And then we'll see about her drainage. She has her chest tube in still and it has only drained about 35ml as of last night, which is good. It is all blood at this point, just PRAY that after all the excess blood drains out that her chest drainage is minimal. This will tell us whether the surgery worked or not. Only time will tell.