Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord! Shout it from the roof tops! Shout it from the Streets!
Little Katie’s surgery went exceptionally well. They took her for surgery about 10:45 am. I received a phone call about 12:10 that the surgery was underway and that things were going good. Apparently there was bit of a delay in getting started. We were told to migrate to the third floor surgical waiting room, for updates. So we Cole’s (we had not only family, but friends and church members here. At this point they were all Cole’s), being herd animals, all packed up and made the journey to this new area.
We had been there barely 30 minutes or so when the call came via the waiting room receptionist that the surgery was over, and that they were closing.WHAT????!!! We all cried. This could only mean one thing,…..since no surgeon or nurse had come to inform us of complications, it had to be great , right? We were told that the Surgeon would come and give us an update in 30 to 40 minutes. We were ecstatic to say the least.
It was at this point that I remembered that I hadn’t really eaten anything since about 6:00 yesterday. As love and devotion to family would have it, Beth’s MaMa, Mrs. McDuffie came in like Yogi Bear with a “Pickinic Basket”, asking would you like a ham or bologna sandwich,? Cheese? We have mustard and mayonnaise. Chips anyone? I had begun to enjoy what was to be the first of many ham sandwiches today when I saw the surgeon coming and the receptionist pointing in our direction. “What do I do with this thing?” I thought to myself. And like any self respecting Agriculture teacher I quickly stuck it in my left pants pocket. More on that later.
The Doctor said that her surgery went as smooth as any one of these procedures ever could. They were able to return the offending organs to their proper positions with no complications. The hole in her diaphragm was small enough with enough thickness of tissue to allow them to simply suture it shut.MaMa began boxing up the buffet at about 1:10. This whole surgery thing was a whirl wind affair. We thank God from whom all blessings flow! We went back to the Intensive Care Nursery and set up shop there. Within about 45 minutes or so we were called back to see our little girl.
You know, the mind is a funny thing. I had expected her to look much worse. However, I was pleased to find that she looked just the same, save the steri-strip covering a small and incision about 2 and ½ or 3 inches long. This incision runs at a downward angle, generally following the contour of her ribcage.She has also had to have the IV reinserted into her scalp, and another line in the femoral artery on her right leg. She is managing to have continued acceptable blood pressure levels, and has not needed to be put back on any medications.The Surgeon said that she had a little bit of lung material in there, which gave us a lot of hope.
When we actually got to see the x-rays, we were very excited to see that she actually has about one third of a lung! The Respiratory therapist said that she had the equivalent of the complete upper lobe of her lung. It is expected to continue to grow until she is about 10-12 years old. While it will more than likely never be as large as the other one, it is expected to grow. He seemed to think that there should be no reason why she shouldn’t have a full and normal life.
Again all of this excitement is dampened by the fact that she is once again had to be put on the high frequency ventilator at 420 breaths per minute. She is obviously in some pain as on occasion she grimaces and you can see her heart rate and blood pressure rise. This is remedied by the application of morphine or versed. The next couple of days will be just as perilous as the first four or five. We have not cleared this hurdle, but rather are perched precariously at the top.Your thoughts and prayers have been heard by the Father and have obviously made a profound impact upon the wellbeing of Katie.Don’t touch that dial! Daily updates to follow…..same Katie time, same Katie Channel!
(by the way…..I found the sandwich as soon as the surgeon left. It was just as good as before I hid it away!)
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