Recovery Update

It is definitely great to see that the recovery from Lucy's shunt surgery is much quicker than her esophagus surgery in September.  Aside from a little hiccup last night, when Lucy was throwing up (unknown reasons, but likely due to gagging reflex from ventilator tube, causing extra air in her tummy), she is doing great.  She was taken off the ventilator this morning and is back to 2 liters of high flow air to keep pressure on her airways.  I was also able to give her a shampoo with the help of our nurse, Brooke.  Lucy's hair was very matted and covered with an iodine/surgical goo so she was looking pretty rough.

You can definitely see and feel her shunt on the right side of her little head and she has two pretty impressive surgical scars - one on her head and another on her torso, where the shunt tubing was placed for drainage.  Did we mention that her shunt was manufactured by my old company?  Yep, Lucy has a Medtronic shunt inside of her, courtesy of their neurosurgery division.

We still have 2 issues left to tackle before Lucy can come home, but our list is definitely getting shorter!

1.  She will have a swallow study, hopefully later this week, in order to see what happens when she swallows, to see if her airway is being properly closed off.  Once we see what happens, we will be able to make a plan for oral feeds, versus continuing her G-tube, straight into her stomach.

2.  Her Stridor is still around - although it has quieted in the past weeks.  She will be gradually weaned off of the high flow air and we will see how she does with it.  If she is incapable of handling room air only, another procedure may be needed to ensure her airway is not restricted.

In the meantime, we are so happy to be able to interact with her and comfort her when she cries, instead of standing by her bed and holding her hands while she silently cries.  Those days immediately after surgery are grueling on her, but they are also rough on us, as we feel so helpless.