A whole new look!

Annabelle is sporting a new look these days.

Well, today to be more exact.

Things we got rid of today:

Vapotherm (for now)
NJ Feeding tube (right nostril)
NG Suction tube (left nostril)
Pacing wires (belly… she was not pleased when they came out but I’m sure she FEELS much better)
Extra dressing over her chest wound (it didn’t heal nicely at the bottom, but we have a nice scab now!)

Things we added today:

ET tube for the Ventilator (for now)
Gtube (in her belly)
IV (temporary… needed for surgery but will come out soon since they never stay “good” for very long)
Stomach insision dressing (looks pretty much like an extension of her chest scar)

All in all… we have less “stuff” which is always a good thing!

Surgery went smashingly well. No issues, no concerns. Did have some lower than nice blood pressures when she go back to her room, but they have since corrected themselves. We’re still sitting on the ventilator, MIGHT try to take it out tonight but that is still to be seen. One of her lungs looked like it was trying to have some collapsed spots (it’s not as bad as it sounds…) but she just had a bunch of junk that needed suctioned out and so now she’s doing much better with that too.

She came back from surgery MAD. Like eyes wide open, gonna strangle someone mad. The surgeon called her feisty. Mommy said, “That’s my girl!” They’ve doped her up a little more because she was totally NOT liking her breathing tube. I think she was more mad at that than at the stomach incision pain.

Won’t try and feed her through her nice new tube for at least 24 hours, when exactly will depend on how long she stays on the ventilator. Please pray that she is able to eat WELL through her new tube, that she is able to come off the ventilator soon, and that we have NO more blood pressure issues!

Doctor’s are saying there is a *slight* chance of us still going home by Christmas.

Mommy is still leaving that up to Jesus.

Oh, and in my last post I noted that we were deciding between an open and a laparoscopic surgery (i.e. being slight guinnee pigs as they’ve only done it on hypoplast kids 5 times in this hospital… only 2 of them were completely successful…insert scary music here)

Well, surgeon and doctor’s came and told us that our heart surgeon said he was okay with the laparoscopic method… as long as the had a big roundtable discussion with ALL doctor’s involved. Since there was no way that was going to happen today (and really, no way of telling WHEN that was going to happen) our choice was do the surgery open now or delay it until they were able to have time to talk.

We decided to, obviously, go ahead with an open surgery. I wasn’t loving being all cutting edge anyway, and had prayed God would give us an answer, and that seemed like a pretty good one to me.

That said, if they would have offered it to us, we had decided to do the laparoscopic way. And really, I think that’s the “wave” of the future, even for hypoplast kiddos.

Anywho, that’s our day! We are resting now, although miss Annabelle is still not pleased being on the ventilator. She’s also having a lot of pain (as told by her bright red face and silent screams which are absolute horror to watch) so they are giving her some more morphine.

Here are some fun pics I promised!