A Little Bump in the Road

Let me begin by saying Kyara is doing well this morning. Her heartrate is continuing to drop to closer to normal and her bloodpressure is looking great.

Last night at 3:00am, I got a telephone call from the doctors at the hospital. You know how your heart just sinks and you feel like you have no breath? Well....that was me. The doctor began the call with "Kyara is fine, now..." Ok, I can breathe again! Her oxygen saturation had dropped to a very low level and the doctors had to place an emergency chest tube on the other side of her chest. So she now has chest tubes on both the right and left side. The left side had developed air in the space outside the lungs and the chest tube allowed them to drain it out. The problem has been managed, and Kyara is doing well again.

I got a call from our GI in Atlanta, Dr. Meyers, last night before I left the hospital. It meant so much to me to hear from him and to have him reassure me that everything that has been going on with Kyara is expected. I tell you what, Dr. Meyers and Nurse Kim, are unmatched. They have gone above and beyond what I would think doctors will do for you. Scottish Rite is an unbelievable Childrens Hospital. The design of the hospital, the staff, and the accomodations are second to none! We are very lucky to have that in Atlanta. Not to say that Michigan is not nice. It is nice, the doctors are doing a great job with Kyara, but Scottish Rite is special!

Dr. Coran just came in and said Kyara is doing quite well. He is very pleased with everything, and for us to remember this is a major surgery and there will be complications, but she is actually doing better than most of his patients. They are planning to wait on taking the breathing tube out for a few days due to the situation last night. They are also postponing the swallow study until later next week (this study will give us an idea of how successful the surgery was.) He said to be prepared for a leak in the site where they connected the esophagus and the stomach...this usually appears by day 9, but he has seen it at day 11 post-op. So far, Kyara has been dry (no leak) and today is day is considered day 3. If there is a leak, it will close on its own, but we will stay in the hospital until it is closed. This could take up to 3 weeks, or could be as short as 2 days after the leak.

Just to recap, Kyara is looking good. There have been some bumps in the road, but they have been expected and managed by the awesome staff here. Kyara has been very strong and is continuing to get better each day.