Surgery...

Laynie had surgery on Thursday, July 21st. She was scheduled to get her soft palate repaired, a broncoscopy, and to up-size her trach. She was the first one of the morning and they took her back at 8:00. The hardest part is definitely handing her off to the anesthesiologist, knowing that the next time you see her she is going to be so miserable! The surgery lasted about 2 1/2 hours and everything went really well!!! Dr. Morales (the plastic surgeon) fixed her soft palate and when he came out to talk to us after he was done he said that he fixed her choanal atresia as well. He said he had a great view of it and so he just did it. We were very happy that he repaired it, because that means one less surgery in the future. She does have to wear nasal stents again for about 4-6 weeks. She doesn't like them at all and they look so uncomfortable. He wasn't able to fix all of her soft palate in this surgery. He said it was too wide and it will need another surgery in 1 year. Dr. Park (the ENT) put in a larger trach and also put in new ear tubes because her's had fallen out. We can't hear all of her sounds that she used to make because her trach is bigger and not as much air can fit around it and reach her vocal cords. I loved her noises, but as she grows we will start to hear them again! It was really nice to get so much done under one anesthesia. She was extremely miserable the rest of the day, but I don't blame her. She is such an amazing little girl and one tough cookie! The next day she had a MRI of her ears and some hearing tests done while under anesthesia again. We got to watch them put her under and it was kind of cool, but kind of sad too. We don't know the results of the MRI yet but we do know about her hearing. They said that they don't think she has auditory neuropathy (which they told us she had in the past). She has profound hearing loss in both ears, which is considered deaf. She doesn't have any hearing in her left ear and she responded to very low and very high pitches at a really loud level in her right ear. We are waiting on the MRI to see if she can even have hearing aides or a cochlear implant. There are a lot of problems with the anatomy of her inner ears so we don't know if she will benefit from hearing devices. She did so well and has recovered like a champion. We are so proud of her! Including the 3 surgeries that she just had, she is now at a total of 9 surgeries and 6 times being under anesthesia. What a rockstar she is!!! Drake stayed with Mamma Maureen and Papa. He had such a great time! Thank you so much for watching him!
Getting all ready with her adorable hospital gown.
Love her!!!
The night of her surgery she even managed to give me a half-smile!!!
We love you Laynie!