We arrived at Good Samaritan Hospital at 6am this morning. Once we were admitted into a pre-op room and once the hospital gown and bootie socks were on her it seemed like she had a bit of a memory of what goes on in this hospital. Chun Le remembered the little probe they wrapped on her toe to check heart rate and cooperated very well when the nurse came to give her the "cocktail" med that she drank to help her get drowsy. Again, the nurses that came in and out of her room were amazed at how well she was doing and her awesome cooperation. They said the norm for two year olds is to cry lots, refuse to drink the meds, and things like that. :) Here she is waiting to be taken to the operating room. You can sense the anxiety in her expressions, but she handled it so well!
Chun Le was taken off to surgery and we moved to the family surgcial unit wating area at around 7:40am. Pretty shortly thereafter, around 8am, Dr. Reddy (ENT) came to let us know that her ear tube insertion went well. It is only about a 10 minute procedure and she did note that there was fluid in her ears and a bit of inflammation so hopefully the tubes will prevent the regular ear pain from occuring in the future. Dr. Daw (plastic surgeon) worked on her palate repair for about 2 hours and 45 minutes so he came out to talk to us around 11am. He let us know that the surgery went well and Chun Le did fine. He said that her palate has a pretty short length which does put her at a higher chance of needing a surgery called "p-flap"(for short)in the future. We will see how her speech progresses and if she has lots of hypernasality as this is typcial he said of kids with short palates. I would guess that it will be a year or two or three before the determination is made as to whether or not she will need the p-flap surgery. Dr. Daw has seen kids with short palates have perfectly normal speech and some with long palates have speech problems and need the p-flap so tracking how her speech progresses will be the key to whether or not she requires the p-flap procedure at some point in the future. He let us know that she will need lots of pain meds over the next 48 hours or so and to expect some bleeding out of the mouth and/or nose. We were taken into the recovery area to be with her when she awoke and she was quite upset. They let me hop up on the bed to be next to her for comfort and Phil did a great job of constantly speaking soft, reassuring words to her. I could not speak as I was trying to keep myself from crying as I watched our little girl hurting so much. She kept putting her finger in her mouth to let us know it was hurting and it would come out all bloody...poor thing.
Once the nurses got the approval to give her some narcotic pain meds, Chun Le was able to calm down and relax a bit. They had Phil hold a tube that gave out humidified air near her mouth so that her surgical area stays moist. After about 20 minutes in recovery they moved her to the pediatric unit where we will spend probably the next two nights.
Since about 1pm we are here in her room just taking turns holding her in the rocking chair. She is either resting in our arms or when she wakes she is upset and in lots of pain you can tell. So the nurses here are helping to keep her medicated with morphine and tylenol with codeine. Chun Le is definitely in a lot more pain than post lip repair surgery as we can hear it in her cry and mannerisms. She is such a strong girl, though, and after about 2-5 min lengths of crying she settles herself back down to rest. About an hour ago she did say she would take a drink of water from a cup, but after a couple of tiny sips she has refused it any other time we offered. I think the idea of a drink sounded great to her until she had to feel it on her very tender and swollen palate. Dr. Daw had warned us that she may not even want to drink anything for the first day so she is behaving "normally" for post palate repair. So this is what it looks like in our room here at Good Sam for the past several hours and we expect this to be the scene for the next 24 -48 hours...
Chun Le was taken off to surgery and we moved to the family surgcial unit wating area at around 7:40am. Pretty shortly thereafter, around 8am, Dr. Reddy (ENT) came to let us know that her ear tube insertion went well. It is only about a 10 minute procedure and she did note that there was fluid in her ears and a bit of inflammation so hopefully the tubes will prevent the regular ear pain from occuring in the future. Dr. Daw (plastic surgeon) worked on her palate repair for about 2 hours and 45 minutes so he came out to talk to us around 11am. He let us know that the surgery went well and Chun Le did fine. He said that her palate has a pretty short length which does put her at a higher chance of needing a surgery called "p-flap"(for short)in the future. We will see how her speech progresses and if she has lots of hypernasality as this is typcial he said of kids with short palates. I would guess that it will be a year or two or three before the determination is made as to whether or not she will need the p-flap surgery. Dr. Daw has seen kids with short palates have perfectly normal speech and some with long palates have speech problems and need the p-flap so tracking how her speech progresses will be the key to whether or not she requires the p-flap procedure at some point in the future. He let us know that she will need lots of pain meds over the next 48 hours or so and to expect some bleeding out of the mouth and/or nose. We were taken into the recovery area to be with her when she awoke and she was quite upset. They let me hop up on the bed to be next to her for comfort and Phil did a great job of constantly speaking soft, reassuring words to her. I could not speak as I was trying to keep myself from crying as I watched our little girl hurting so much. She kept putting her finger in her mouth to let us know it was hurting and it would come out all bloody...poor thing.
Once the nurses got the approval to give her some narcotic pain meds, Chun Le was able to calm down and relax a bit. They had Phil hold a tube that gave out humidified air near her mouth so that her surgical area stays moist. After about 20 minutes in recovery they moved her to the pediatric unit where we will spend probably the next two nights. 
Since about 1pm we are here in her room just taking turns holding her in the rocking chair. She is either resting in our arms or when she wakes she is upset and in lots of pain you can tell. So the nurses here are helping to keep her medicated with morphine and tylenol with codeine. Chun Le is definitely in a lot more pain than post lip repair surgery as we can hear it in her cry and mannerisms. She is such a strong girl, though, and after about 2-5 min lengths of crying she settles herself back down to rest. About an hour ago she did say she would take a drink of water from a cup, but after a couple of tiny sips she has refused it any other time we offered. I think the idea of a drink sounded great to her until she had to feel it on her very tender and swollen palate. Dr. Daw had warned us that she may not even want to drink anything for the first day so she is behaving "normally" for post palate repair. So this is what it looks like in our room here at Good Sam for the past several hours and we expect this to be the scene for the next 24 -48 hours...
The kids loved seeing these. Rachel & Isaac say "Hi" to Chun Le. We are going to pray for her at our quiet time tonight. All the kids thought Phil was pouring coffee through a siphon tube into her mouth in the one pic. Rest up! We love you!!
ReplyDeletePraying for you all -- Szu
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