Feeding Tube Surgery

Wednesday was Brooklyn's feeding tube surgery day. For those of you who follow my blog you know that this has been a decision a long time in coming. Brooklyn has aways been a little peanut but she really is underweight these days and after a tough winter of sickness we knew it was time. Brooklyn did great as we waited for surgery...you know how it goes, you are there for a couple of hours before the procedure. We took her portable dvd player and snuggled until it was time.

They got her all hooked up....the longer we waited the more "over it" she was....never any tears though - more of a "lets get this over" attitude!

Surgery only lasted about a half an hour - it went smooth. We had some trauma in recovery unfortunately because they needed a urine sample (as a follow up to an earlier abnormal test) They were to get the sample immediately after surgery while she was still "out" However, a nurse "forgot" and my poor baby who was trying to come out of anesthesia wakes up to five nurses holding her down to cath her.....needless to say I went in to complete "mama bear" mode and let them have it. I know that doesn't change anything - but I sure felt better. The good thing is that once we were out of recovery and onto the peds floor things went much better.

There was time for lots of cuddle time with my little girl.

She was admitted for 24 hour observation which is pretty standard for this type of surgery. We needed to bolus/gravity feed her a few times as well as experience an overnight/pump feed before she could be released.

We did hit a brief "rough patch" when we attempted the pump feed. The formula just would not go down into the button. Of course the nurses tried all their "troubleshooting" tricks but had to call the surgeon who gave a list of possible problems ranging from dried blood blocking the tube or swelling from surgery to a malfunction of the button which would require an extended stay and possible additional surgery.....it was a stressful few hours but around midnight or one we were successful with the feed and could breathe a HUGE sigh of relief!

We are home now. She is doing really great - I still haven't seen much of that amazing Brooklyn smile yet but we are getting there. She is tolerating her tube feeds great and also is eating by mouth too - even had a Happy Meal for lunch.

Thank you all who follow this blog and pray constantly for me and the kiddos - you all mean so much to us! I will keep you up to ate on how she is doing I promise. I bet before long we will have a smiley Brookie picture posted!