Surgery

On Monday, we took Emma back into the hospital. She was throwing up all weekend and was becoming dehydrated. Since she was just in the hospital 3 weeks ago with the same problems, we asked that the doctors run as many tests as possible to see what is going on. On Saturday night her body temperature was 95.9 degrees with a heart rate of 165 while she slept. Her normal heart rate while she sleeps is 70. After admitting her into the hospital, Emma needed IV fluid again. Unfortunately her veins are shot from 2 years of IVs. We elected to have a porta-cath put in which will allow permanent IV access. It is under her skin and runs through one of the main arteries in her neck. The surgery was supposed to last an hour, but due to her small size there were complications. The surgeon had to modify the device because it was too big. After the surgery, we noticed swelling and blood pooling around the site so they took her back in for a second surgery. During both surgeries they needed to remove her trach and stitch up her neck so that air would not escape. They intibated her with a breathing tube since she is trach dependent. We were more nervous during this surgery than we were with her heart surgery because we know how dependent she is on the trach. After the second surgery, she looked much better. She is recovering in the Pediatric ICU receiving one on one attention from the nurses. She is on morphine for the pain. We do not have any updates on her labs yet to determine why she is throwing up and having irregular temperatures and heart rates.