Lucy's surgery follow-up showed no leaks - Yay! This means that the surgical spot has healed, although there is still some healing that has to take place as the esophagus is bulging at the top, no leaking is great news. Her suction tube, which she has had since birth has been removed and so has her chest tube, which was the main prevention from us being able to hold/interact with her. She was even able to spend some time in the swing today - so much better than being confined to a crib! Next steps for Lucy are to slowly start to introduce feeds into her G-Tube in her stomach so that her IV can be removed. After that, her remaining 3 issues will be addressed:
1. Hydrocephalus - she is scheduled for a head ultrasound tomorrow (9/21) to take a look at her ventricle size and fluid amount on her brain.
2. VSD (hole in her heart) - at this point, doctors still do not believe we need to do anything with this at this time, so it will be monitored
3. Airway Issues - this one is more serious and a bit of a mystery because we are not sure what is causing the problems. Currently, she is on a high air flow in the hopes that it will keep her airway/lungs open. This is preventing us from bottle-feeding her because the high air flow would likely cause her to aspirate. Since the doctors are not sure what is causing the problems and it is very close to her last surgical site, they are very hesitant to do anything about it right now. We have been told to expect a study in the next "several" weeks to take a look with a scope to see if they can determine what is causing her stridor and her airway to close off. Once they know what the issue is, we will make a plan of action to correct it. It could range from something that she will grow out of to something that requires another surgery.
So...we are back to the waiting game (again!), but have been told to expect a minimum of another month in the hospital. Ugh...that's a long time.
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