We woke up early Wednesday morning and arrived at Egleston around 6am. Kayla was not able to eat or drink anything but she managed pretty well. We sat in the waiting room until about 7am when they called us back. We met with someone from anesthesia, Kayla got a quick check up and I was told she had an innocent heart murmer...that was kind of weird to hear but apparently no big deal. They gave her a sedative and within minutes she was getting very sleepy.
They took her to the OR and we didn't see her for about 3 hours after that. The surgeon came out and told us it went perfect so you can't get a better outcome than that! When we finally got to see Kayla I could tell she had been crying hard but she was able to drink some juice. She took a short nap and the rest of the day was spent entertaining her, letting her drink some, and trying to keep her happy and comfortable. She did not like trying to sit up and preferred to lay down. She was hooked up to an IV and a foley (catheter). Every 4 hours a tech came to check her vitals and all of our nurses were pretty good. Around 6pm they cleared Kayla to eat solid food so she had a grilled cheese and some peas. She liked that. She seemed a little uncomfortable so they gave her some Tylenol and a medication to treat bladder spasms (if she happened to be having any). The night was rough. She didn't sleep longer than a 3 hour stretch (like having a newborn again)! Morning was better and they told us we would go home around lunchtime.
We all started getting a little restless by then but once Kayla was unhooked from all of her tubes she was ready to run and play! She recovered so well. She has an incision on her lower abdomen about 2.5 inches long - bigger than I thought but they closed it with something called Dermabond so no stitches! Once we were in the car she took a nap and when we got home she acted like herself. I was a little worried about how she would sleep but we gave her a dose of Tylenol right at bedtime and she slept without a sound for abou 12 hours.
It's Day 5 today since the surgery and she is still doing great!
Our church and other friends were praying and we really appreciated it.
We'll have a follow up in a month to verify that it was successful.
Kayla right after the surgery and then standing up for the first time:
Coming back to life!
