Ear Tubes

Peyton had her ear tube/adenoid surgery Friday morning. She was to have been first up, but they were waiting on her prior anesthesia records from her surgery on the 9th to see if there were any problems to be aware of for anesthesia. Since the child up 2nd was having a very quick procedure to remove his ear tubes, they put him in front of Peyton. Sure enough, the records arrived and 15 minutes later we were on our way back with Peyton. It was 39 minutes from the time I sat in the waiting room til her doctor came in to let me know how it went. She did very well. Her adenoids were blocking about 50% of the back of her nose.

We spent the night at the hospital, even though the procedure is out-patient. Since she has the sleep apnea issues, they wanted to monitor her breathing overnight to make sure that any swelling from the surgery was not interfering with her oxygen levels. Her oxygen saturation stayed mostly between 96-99% the whole time. The doctor came in this morning and said she was good to go. We were home just after 11:00.

Of all Peyton's surgeries (this was #11), this was probably the most minor. Of all the surgeries, this was the one that caused her to be the fussiest! It was a rough night for her last night, but she is doing well.

Neurosurgery Follow Up

Peyton had a good report from the Neurosurgeon yesterday. She is doing very well and the doctor is quite pleased. He removed the last remaining steri strip. The incision area is quite red but he said that is from the sutures which are under the skin and should get better shortly. If not, we'll go back to him. He ordered an x-ray to make sure that her neck is remaining stable when extended or flexed. It is. So, we ended on a good note and will return to see him in a month.

Next up...Friday's ear tube/adenoid surgery. Still a go. I am most anxious to have all of this behind us!

Post Surgery and Upcoming Surgery

Just a quick update to say that Peyton is doing really well since her surgery on August 9th. She has been just as mobile as ever since she came home on the 11th. She scared me at times with how mobile she was! I would have thought her neck would have been very sore and she would choose not to move it so much. Not the case! Actually, her doctor said that it's better for her to be mobile because it will heal faster.

In addition to the oxygen levels remaining at a really good level while she's sleeping, we've noticed a change in Peyton's feet. Since she was born, her feet have always been freezing. Now they're a normal temperature most of the time!

If all goes according to plan, Peyton will have her ear tube/adenoid surgery this Friday, the 24th. Her congestion from being intubated on the 9th has finally eased up and I think she's good to go for Friday. One more surgery coming up in September. This one is to shorten the tube of one of the shunts in her eyes. We found out that would have to be done back on 7/30/07, but the doctor didn't want to do it at that time since she had so much bacteria in her eyes at the time. It's apparently a very quick and simple procedure. It will be so good to get these surgeries out of the way.

Mom will be arriving on the 29th. Moira's looking forward to seeing Granny. I think she thinks Granny just lives at the airport and we just pick her up and drop her off as needed. On the 30th, Ron and I are off to Las Vegas until the 4th for some much needed R&R. It'll be the first time I've been away from Peyton since I was hospitalized in May 2006. I'm not feeling 100% great about leaving the kids, but I know they will be in good hands!

Will keep you posted on how Peyton makes out at her follow up with her Neurosurgeon tomorrow as well as her surgery on Friday.

Home!

Peyton came home today! We were home by about 11:00 or so this morning. She is doing really well after her surgery. She occasionally will get fairly fussy which leads me to believe she's still in some pain. I can't imagine her not having some pain! She is becoming more and more active, which is good. The doctors told us to just let Peyton be herself and not restrict her movement too much. We were told that if she can get moving her neck as she normally does, it will help her out in the long run.

She is still pretty congested, so hopefully we can get that knocked out pretty quickly. It makes me a bit nervous considering her hospitalization for her congestion back in May. However, I am sure they wouldn't let us leave today if she wasn't well.

Peyton's not 100% her happy little self, but she's getting there. She's definitely quite active now and is making us nervous with her head movements, but we realize it's good for her to move. We get to take the dressing off her incision tomorrow. How fun. She just has steri-strips holding the incision together. We will follow up with the Neurosurgeon next week.