Surgery Day

9:15 p.m.:

Lia Kate is sound asleep in the crib right now and I am headed there soon as we are sure to have a long night of interrupted sleep ahead. We are so glad for this day to be over but also so grateful for how well things went for our little girl did today! More tomorrow ...

7:30 p.m.:

Lia Kate finally woke up from all the anesthesia and ate two yogurts, talked a little, made silly faces, and did the hand motions to Itsy Bitsy Spider and Twinkle, Twinkle before falling back asleep. Her fever is down and her cute little personality is starting to come back. Would you believe that my cousin (the only one I have in Birmingham) and a friend are both working tonight and tomorrow night on the same floor that we are on?!? Our friend is our nurse tonight and we have had fun catching up with both of them.

6:00 p.m.:

Britton and GiGi came by earlier to say hi. Britton came over and rubbed Lia Kate's leg and was totally fascinated by the red light of the pulse ox on her toe.

3:44 p.m:

We have been in our room since just after noon. She's been sleeping most of the time and is now running a 102 fever which they are keeping an eye on. She has already taken a small bottle pedialyte but is mostly just sleeping the day away. Britton should be coming up soon to check on his lil' sis.

11:54 a.m:

We are now back in the recovery room. Lia Kate is sleeping in Emily's arms. She is doing well...the nurse said she was feisty, but she's just sweetly sleeping now. Moving to a room soon.

11:30 a.m.:

Still waiting to see her. She is still in recovery and we haven't heard anything since we spoke to the doctor. I think when she is out of recovery, they will officially admit her and move us to a room.

10:50 a.m.:

Surgery is over and it was a success! We just spoke with the doctor. True to his word the surgery only took about 90 minutes. He did end up going into the dural sac to look for tethering bands and he did find some bands that could have resulted in a tethered spine down the road. He released them and told us that by doing that he pretty much eliminated her risk for a tethered spinal cord down the road. The biggest risk at this point is that she will develop hydrocephalus (fluid on the brain). This happens when the cerebrospinal fluid is altered, which it was when the doctor opened up the dural sac. However, he said the opening was so small that her risk of hydrocephalus is very small. He said we'll be here in the hospital for at least a couple of days and we'll watch for symptoms of it. He said her prognosis is excellent and that this will be just a blip on the radar before long. We will probably follow up with him every couple of years, but that she will not need lifelong follow-up. We are very encouraged and thankful for this great doctor and wonderful outcome. Praise God from whom all blessings flow!

10:05 a.m.:

It's been an hour and 15 minutes or so now. No word, but we've had friends here this morning helping us pass the time. When we talked to the doctor this morning he guesstimated that we'd be "seeing his smiling face after about 90 minutes." Hoping that's the case!

9:00 a.m.:

Just got a call from the nurse. She said they just started on the surgery about 10 minutes ago. She said we would only hear an update if it took more than 2 hours, so I am hoping that no news is good news.

8:00 a.m.:

They just took Lia Kate back for surgery. The surgery should take from 1 to 2 hours. After surgery, she will be admitted to a room. Will update here as the day unfolds. Please pray that the surgery goes well.