Lisa’s surgery is finished. There were some complications, but everything seems to have turned out well. It was a long day, night, and day for Lisa, her mother, and I. Lisa and her mother are back home, and doing well.
The procedure was performed at Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital, in Nashville TN. The facility is three years old. I have to admit that it was a very impressive experience, and I would suggest that hospital to anyone. The staff was very attentive. During the surgery, some one contacted us once an hour to give us a progress update.
We left home in Knoxville at 6 am eastern time to get to the hospital in Nashville at 10:30 am.
When we got to the hospital for the surgery, the Doctor ‘changed’ which side looked better as the implant candidate on the MRI. When we got there, the right side was the side to be implanted, but was changed to the left side. Last minuet changes like that don’t instill confidence. The Doctor then told us that the location in the MRI looked bad, and he wasn’t sure if he would be able to do the implant when he opened her up. I imagine it is standard hospital practice to prepare you for the worst scenario. But it was a little nerve racking to her mother (ok, and I).
The surgery took over 4 hours to perform. We were placed in a very nice waiting room with other people also waiting for their children to have various operations. A nurse names ‘Sid’ came to us once an hour to update us on Lisa’s progress. The surgery took over four hours to perform. One of the updates was to tell us that they had accidentally cut a blood supply and that Lisa had lost a lot of blood. Her blood pressure had dropped, and the heart rate had risen due to the loss in blood. She needed a transfusion, and was receiving liquids to keep the blood pressure stable until they were able to type her blood, and get some to her. (It couldn’t be an easy, smooth surgery, could it?)
Eventually they stopped the bleeding, typed her blood, transfused her, inserted the implant and closed her up. It took a few hours after the surgery to get her stable.
We arrived at the hospital about 10:30 am central time. The surgery started about 1pm, and was finished around 6pm. Her mother and I were able to see her for the first time around 8:30 pm in post op. She refused to be laid down, and was being held by a nurse when we were taken to her. We traded positions with the nurse, and began a strict regimen of TLC.
The extra ‘fluids’ they put in her while waiting for the blood created a situation where she had too much fluids in her little body. She had bloody mucus in her nose and throat, as well as a breathing tube in her nose that descended into her throat. Her breathing was laborious, and congested. She was on oxygen, and fighting just to breath, her little chest moving up and down in hard angry strokes. In addition to being born deaf, Lisa has my allergies, asthma, and weak immune system. (I had to give her something besides my good looks.)
By 11 pm Lisa had expelled most of the extra fluids, and her mother tried to take a nap. We knew it was going to be a long night, and we would need to attend to Lisa in shifts.
At 1:30 am, a room opened up in the Critical Care Unit. We were moved there, and settled in for the night. There was a cot in the room, and Lisa’s mother and I took turn trying to get a few winks of sleep. Lisa was held and cuddled by either her mother or I from 8:30 pm until we left the hospital about 11:30 am the following day.
After the exhaustive day and night and half day at the hospital, we were discharged from the hospitals care. We started the three plus hour drive back to Knoxville, tired and sleep deprived. We arrived home around 4pm eastern time. It had been a long 34 hours, but everyone was home and safe. The girls went to bed, and I got ready to fly back to Massachusetts the next morning.
All is well that ends well.
