First (of many) Esophagus Dilatations

Before...she didn't have to wear the hat, but one of the nurses tried it on her and she looked so cute.

On Friday, Lucy had her first esophagus dilatation (now, there is some discussion about if it is a dilatation, or a dilation, but the medical people have been calling it a dilatation, so that is what we are going with!)

It was another long day for us at Day Surgery.  We had to be there at 8:45 and she didn't go into surgery until 11!  The procedure was quick - 30 minutes at the most.  The GI doctor told us that her esophagus was around 3 mm when he started, and by inserting a wire and then a series of tubes over that wire, they were able to got to 6 mm.  They tried a 7, but couldn't even get it down, so he stopped at a 6.  We're not exactly sure how many of these she will need, or how wide we'll need to get to, but we know that this was the first of several.

Lucy had a really tough time coming out of anesthesia this time around.  She woke up good, but her blood oxygen levels did not pop up as quickly as last time.  It brought us back to the NICU days, when she was constantly on monitors and we kept cheering her on to keep her numbers up!  So, we were in recovery for quite a while and there were even some murmurs about keeping her overnight for observation.  Jason and I did NOT want that to happen and knowing her like we do, we knew that it just takes her some time to recover.  She got two nebulizer treatments and after those and some long cuddles with both mom and dad, she was doing much better and we got to take her home that same day.  We did not go down there preparing for a day surgery to be an overnight stay, so were VERY thankful that we didn't have to have a hospital stay.  We are not exactly sure why this time took so much longer to recover than the last time, but her ENT doctor was at the last surgery so he may be helped guide the breathing tube placement/length of placement.  We definitely plan to talk to him before her next one to hopefully avoid this again!  It was kind of scary for Jason and I to see her in such a rough state again.  Have I mentioned that I can't wait for this to be over?!?!?!?

After...not feeling so hot.

Lucy is such an amazing baby, though!  She recovered so great on the ride home and over the weekend and was SUCH a good baby in the midst of not feeling great on Friday night and having 6 cousins, many aunts and uncles, a baby shower (for her!), and a big crowd for Easter.

We are slowly re-introducing food to her and all has gone well so far.  Her esophagus should be about twice as wide as before the procedure, so hopefully her food tolerance will slowly increase.

Her next dilatation will likely be in about 3 weeks.