Audrey's Esophageal Resection Surgery at Boston Children's

9 AM

Baby Audrey is in surgery right now. It started officially at 8:30 Eastern time and they have scheduled 6.5 hours for her, but of course will adapt as needed. Her right lung is adhered to the wall of her chest with scar tissue, that they will need to contend with when going in, so this will be a slow careful surgery. Yesterday we had a full morning of preop appointments and then went home for a nap and finished the day by taking Audrey to see the famous ducks (both real and bronze) at the Boston Public Gardens and a dinner at Faneuil Hall. She was very happy, even going into surgery this morning she was laughing at how silly I looked in the cap and gown as I carried her in to fall asleep. She fell asleep quickly. They let me kiss her without my mask before I left the room.

We spent as much time as we could playing with Audrey the first two days we were in Boston, between her pre-op appointments and naps.  She loved the dancing fountain near the New England Aquarium!

Meeting the ducks in Boston Public Garden

She was SO excited that she is just the right size to ride the mama duck!  Audrey has developed a major crush on ducks.  She says the word now, very clearly, and it's a riot to watch her go nuts whenever she sees one.  She just KNOWS she's going to succeed in her plan to catch one someday too, but somehow the real ones always get away.  These famous "Make Way for Ducklings" statues were the best because she could actually touch them.

Freshly bathed and all ready for surgery

She had a lot of fun with this toy in the pre-op waiting room

Her relaxation medicine made Audrey loopy, and my doctor getup looked so silly to Audrey that she actually giggled all the way into surgery.  They told us one parent could go with her into the OR, and my tender-hearted husband immediately delegated the task.  I actually loved getting to carry her in and stay with her while she fell asleep.  She laughed and grinned the whole way.  Seeing her that way was a great way to say good-bye for the next few days. 

10:30 AM

Dr Jennings just came out and talked to us. He found some tracheomalacia and some abnormal function in her vocal chords, both serious risk factors for respiratory trouble in her life. We will learn much more in the coming hours and days. This will be a day of many revelations.  So far we are keeping our chins up, this is a wonderful place and they are taking great care of all of us.

2 PM

To say that they are being very careful with Audrey is an understatement. She's been on the table for hours now, and they are just now making the first incision.  But on a funny note, they brought me a present--- the glass bead they fished out of her esophagus. You know, the kind you put in the bottom of vases? Yep, she found one and ate it apparently, must have been a couple of weeks ago. Cute, funny FAST baby!!! At least it wasn't something sharp!    That has been our crazy life recently, a non-stop "don't let her eat ANYTHING" and following her around everywhere like a hawk, sweeping and vacuuming and cleaning floors like madmen. Most of the time if she managed to get something, it would eventually come back up. That bead was too heavy though. I think it happened while the kids were "watching" her one afternoon while I was doing some paperwork. I had almost taken her into the ER last Sunday--actually left the house and got to the freeway, but she kept acting fine all that morning, and then coughing up spit, and then acting fine, and Justin kind of talked me out of it so I turned around and went to my neighborhood church for the last time in months instead. She's been fine all week since then, and I think the bead must have turned on its end so that it wasn't blocking her off. Crazy, crazy.

5:30pm

Just got another report.  Slow going, but smooth. They are comparing this surgery to a marathon.  9 hours and counting, and they'll be going for several more.  I didn't realize we were Dr. Jennings' only case today. Good thing, since initially we were told he had scheduled us for six hours. It will be interesting to see when this wraps up. They told us that the hard part is getting past the scar tissue, which makes sense now that we know more about how that works with the lung adhering to the chest wall because of her prior two "thoracotomy" (open chest) surgeries.  The actual removal of the bad section of her esophagus should be relatively very quick.

6:30pm

The stricture is out! Now to pull together the good sections.

8:00 pm

He's closing her up!!!!!!! In one hour Dr Jennings will come to talk to us about the surgery!

8:30 pm

Dr Jennings just came in!!!! Things went even better than expected! He's thinking just 2 or 3 days of paralysis instead of the 3-5 we were expecting!   In about 30 minutes we will get to see her!   He says her esophagus now looks wide open and beautiful! (Pizza, here we come!!!!)  And the pressure on her trachea was also improved, and looks much better. He will have an ENT evaluate her in a couple of weeks!

We've been through this part of the post-surgery before and know what to expect-- when we see her, she won't be able to respond to us (and we will be discouraged from trying to get any reaction or recognition out of her, because she needs to stay very still and calm, so any reaction from her at all will cause them to put her even deeper under).... but even so, getting to see her again will be wonderful!

10 pm

She was in the OR for approximately 12 hours, then it took them a couple of hours to finish prepping her for her bed and stuff, plus we had to be there two hours early, so a very long day, but she looks really well. We are tired but very happy.