June's surgery to repair her TEF was scheduled for Saturday, July 25. She did well during the surgery. The surgery took a couple hours, and when she was finished, we were able to go see her in her room.
June's section of esophagus that was missing was a little bigger than anticipated, so the repair site was tight. A two inch incision was made under June's arm to repair her esophagus and trachea. Surgery unattached her esophagus from her trachea. They patched her trachea and then pulled and sewed the two sections of her esophagus together. Typically, surgery would pass a feeding tube down the esophagus into the stomach during surgery, but they were not able to because June's esophagus was narrow and swollen. Surgery would try feeding the tube through her nose down into her stomach once the site where her esophagus had been repaired healed a little more.
I was still recovering in the hospital during June's first surgery. Luckily, June and I were in the same hospital, but we were on opposite sides of the complex. The nurses stressed how important it was for me to rest as well as see June. When we had Sawyer, we kept him in our room our entire stay, so trying to balance seeing my baby and getting rest was very hard (mom guilt times ten).
June came back on a ventilator for five days. During that time we could reach our hands through the windows on the side of the bed to touch her, but we could not hold her. The top of her Omnibed had to stay down since she still needed help regulating her body temperature.
In a week, surgery would do an esophageal test (esophagram) to see if the surgery site had healed. During this test, June would drink so liquid with dye and they could see if was leaking out at the surgery site while traveling down to her stomach. Since June couldn't eat during this time (or since she was born), she was fed intravenously with TPN (a cocktail of nutrients to support her).
June's section of esophagus that was missing was a little bigger than anticipated, so the repair site was tight. A two inch incision was made under June's arm to repair her esophagus and trachea. Surgery unattached her esophagus from her trachea. They patched her trachea and then pulled and sewed the two sections of her esophagus together. Typically, surgery would pass a feeding tube down the esophagus into the stomach during surgery, but they were not able to because June's esophagus was narrow and swollen. Surgery would try feeding the tube through her nose down into her stomach once the site where her esophagus had been repaired healed a little more.
I was still recovering in the hospital during June's first surgery. Luckily, June and I were in the same hospital, but we were on opposite sides of the complex. The nurses stressed how important it was for me to rest as well as see June. When we had Sawyer, we kept him in our room our entire stay, so trying to balance seeing my baby and getting rest was very hard (mom guilt times ten).
June came back on a ventilator for five days. During that time we could reach our hands through the windows on the side of the bed to touch her, but we could not hold her. The top of her Omnibed had to stay down since she still needed help regulating her body temperature.
In a week, surgery would do an esophageal test (esophagram) to see if the surgery site had healed. During this test, June would drink so liquid with dye and they could see if was leaking out at the surgery site while traveling down to her stomach. Since June couldn't eat during this time (or since she was born), she was fed intravenously with TPN (a cocktail of nutrients to support her).
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