The surgery was scheduled for 2 1/2 hours, but ended up taking over 4 hours! One of the main reasons it took so long was just because Grace is so small that they had to bring in a microscope :) We sat down with the doctor and he was very happy with how the surgery went. He felt that Grace will end up having a "near normal" voice! Her swallowing should improve as well...due to her bring so young, the nerve should regenerate faster than it would in an older child. He has seen it take between 6-9 months in older kids. Grace was only the 3rd child to receive this surgery in Cincinnati, and by far, the youngest. When he left us, we started to get up to wait for Grace to wake up, and I finally had my meltdown. I was so overwhelmed with everything that had happened and the realization that my little girl is having her life changed, I just sat down on the floor and cried.
Grace was given alot of anesthesia, morphine and fentanyl and she had a hard time waking up. She started throwing up from all the medicine, and had me worried for a couple hours! Then she began demanding crackers, and ate about 20 the first night :) We could barely hear her talk-a whisper would have been an improvement! Meanwhile, Chloe was exhausted and going crazy-she was all over Grace's hospital room, and at one point was swinging from the sink. No, I'm not kidding...then she tried to take apart the pipes under the sink! In the midst of all this, we got a call from the Ronald McDonald House that there was a room available! What an answer to prayer! We were able to cancel the hotel reservation with no fees, and Greg and Chloe stayed that night at the RM House. I was lucky enough to get to sleep in a "chair-bed" at the hospital :) For those of you who have had the great experience of doing that, you know that a hospital night's sleep is pretty much worse than not sleeping at all! Add to that severe back pain by the morning, with no coffe upon waking up, and you get a grouchy mama :)
Grace was sounding better, still very hoarse and raspy, but she was drinking enough that they discharged us! We couldn't believe we were already leaving! We got to have a Thanksgiving meal at the Ronald McDonald House, then took the kids to the Cincinnati Zoo....where most of the animals were inside and nobody was even working...it was funny, turns out Thanksgiving is not a good day to go to the zoo :) We still had fun, and drove home Thanksgiving night.
Our whole family is catching up on sleep and just resting alot. Grace is on a bit of restricted activity, oral antibiotics to prevent infection, topical antibiotics on her incision, and a reflux med for a month or so to prevent any acid from damaging the surgical area. She's doing so well, starting to eat again, and being such a good girl not running or jumping around. We will go see her regular ENT here in town in about a week so he can check on the incision. It's a bigger cut than I thought it would be, and I'm really hoping she doesn't have much of a scar.
I can't tell all of you enough how thankful I am for your prayers, for caring about my family, and just for all the support we've received through this journey from both old friends and new ones. We really did have a great Thanksgiving, getting to not worry about cooking or dishes, but really just being thankful and appreciative of all that we have been given this year.
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