Well the time has come for Josie's next surgery. We check-in tomorrow at 11:30 and are expecting Josie to go into the OR at 1:00. This is another multiple procedures surgery, so it should take a few hours. Some of the things are repeats from January and a couple of new procedures. They are going to:- do another gel foam injection into Josie's laryngeal cleft. This helps her not aspirate as much. She will be extremely hoarse for a few weeks and this is probably the most painful of the procedures.
- replace ear tubes
- examine her airway and take biopsies of her lungs to check for any damage from aspirating.
- remove scaring and granulation tissue from around her feeding tube.
- do a endoscopy of her throat and take some biopsies. Josie is showing signs of significant reflux again, so they are going to determine the extent of this. This will help us decide if we need to repeat the fundoplication surgery where they wrapped Josie's esophagus to prevent reflux.
- inject botox into her neck on the side where the muscles are tight. In about a week it should really start to loosen up her neck and Josie will begin to wear tape for 4 days with a two day break before doing the taping again. We are hoping that better alignment will help her swallow better.
Four different physicians will be working on her, so we will have a chance to visit with each one when they finish their part. This makes for a stressful experience. Chad and I will be spending much of the afternoon waiting to hear our names called in the waiting room and hope that no one has news that we are not expecting. Josie will most likely spend the night in the ICU so they can monitor her airway for swelling. The main concern will all of this is that the gel foam injection causes enough swelling that she would have some trouble breathing. This is fairly rare and really just a precaution. We expect to be home Thursday afternoon and if things go the way they did in January, Josie will most likely be ready to play by then. I am amazed at how quickly kids can bounce back.
I want to thank everyone for their prayers, emails, and phone calls. Josie is blessed to have so many people in her life that love her. Chad and I will be glad when she has this behind her and we can move on to better things. We talked last night and both agreed that with each surgery it just seems to get harder. You would think it would be easier because you know what to expect, but we almost can't stand the thought of Josie being in pain again. It can really make you almost sick to your stomach to walk back into that hospital knowing what is ahead. We just have to keep our eye on the outcome and know that Josie will be more comfortable after all of this is done.
I hope you enjoy the video with this blog post. The kids are enjoying each other's company more and more every day. It is the sweetest thing to see your children loving each other.
I will try to post a quick message when Josie is in recovery tomorrow and thank you again for all of the prayers.
