Week 4 - Skull X-ray & Surgery

At the start of this week Micah had a couple out of town visitors, Bill's sister Sue and her husband John and my cousin Joey. They came all the way from NC to see her beautiful face. I don't have a picture of Uncle Joey but here are Aunt Sue and Uncle John....

 I also finally snapped a pic of my dad and Micah.  It was long overdue considering my dad had been there a couple times already. 

Here's PopPop and Micah.....

He loves telling Micah all the wonderful things she should know about her Mommy.  Like how much I love  to nap and that when she comes home she will have to sleep on "Mommy's schedule." My dad loves to make fun of me and how much I like to sleep.  It never gets old. 

Micah also recently met two of our friends from work:

Jen and Eva

 About midweek Micah's doctors told us that they wanted the plastic surgery team to take a look at her jaw. She was scheduled for a skull X-ray so that they could evaluate her bone structure.  They were looking to see if maybe the size of her chin was affecting her tongue falling back into her throat.  Normally they do X-rays right at Micah's bedside but this time we had to roll her to another floor.

Here is a pic of her getting all cozy in her little bed that she gets transported in. The whole walk down to the X-ray room Micah wouldn't take her eyes off of the lights in the ceiling. It was so funny, her eyes just kept searching for the next light as soon as we would pass the last one. 

So we get to the X-ray room and the technician asks for Micah's nurse, Kelly, and I to come in and help keep her COMPLETELY still so he can get a good shot.  I was so excited I got to go in with her.  Kelly and I got to wear those hot lead aprons too. SCORE!!!!  It was a total success, Micah didn't move at all and we had her little itty bitty head squeezed between two foam squares, that kind of reminded me of bookends.  It literally took 3 minutes total, which was great because it was FREEZING in there.  Poor Micah was sooooo cold but the tech was kind enough to send her back with some warm blankets. Before we headed out he told us he would pass on the X-ray to our Attending Physician and then she would get Plastics to look at it. As of right now, the Attending said she was still waiting to hear back from Plastics but she had reviewed the X-ray herself and she saw nothing remarkable, which means it looked normal. We are still a little nervous to hear what Plastics has to stay. 

Here we are on the X-ray table...

Our little girl was still cold after the X-ray so we decided to put her in her NEW penguin hat that I bought off of ETSY before she was born. 

 I LOVE penguins and I LOVE this little penguin the most.....

The next day we found out that Micah would be having surgery later in the week.  She would be getting a gtube and a muscle biopsy.  The gtube is a feeding tube directly inserted into her stomach from just above her belly button.  It is a more secure solution for her feeds, especially since she could be coming home by the end of the month and we don't want her pulling out the feeding tube every 5 seconds.  Momma DOES NOT want to be shoving a tube up her nose and down into her stomach every couple of weeks. NOT FUN!!!! The muscle biopsy is to try and rule out any other muscular disorders that could have caused her low tone. They are both routine surgeries but we are still SO FREAKING nervous.  

Thursday arrived and it was a process to get Micah ready for surgery.  They had to stop her feeds at 4 am, they had to insert an IV, which took a couple sticks AGAIN before they could find a good vein, and they had to give her a special bath to make sure she didn't have any bacteria near where her incisions would be.  We ended up getting the call to roll her down to the PACU(post-anesthesia care unit) around 10:45am and then she didn't go into the OR until 12:15pm.

Here we are in the PACU waiting to go into the OR. They use the PACU as a waiting area as well for patients awaiting surgery. They check all paperwork here and they make sure all consent forms have been filled out before they begin. 

Once she got rolled back to the OR we got escorted to the waiting room.  They have such a great system in the surgery waiting room at CHOP. They have a good sized room where a nurse will come in every half hour or so and give EVERY parent in the room an update on how their child's surgery is going.  We got an update on Micah around 1:20 and she told us that they had just finished up inserting the gtube and that they were going to start the muscle biopsy. How cool is that?  I love that they keep NERVOUS parents up to date.  We ended up going to get food at 12:15pm and then I pumped to kill some time so we had just made it there for the update at 1:20 pm.  After her surgery was over, around 2:30pm, her surgeon came out to the waiting room to tell us how everything went.  He said it went very smoothly and that we could head back to her room in the NICU to be with her while she recovered. What a relief?!?! 

Here is her first pic after surgery without her feeding tube in her nose....

  

Here are a couple pics of Micah from today, the day after her surgery. 

She is still recovering so she is awfully sleepy.   

(This is exactly how I slept the last 4 months of my pregnancy LOL....)

We are excited to see her off of her cannula (oxygen tube). She has NOTHING on her face now.  I think I kissed her cheeks a million times today.  It was so weird to see her for the first time in 4 weeks with a clear face. She looks like a totally different baby now. 

Look at this clean and clear face....

As Micah's 4th week at CHOP comes to a close, we are so very thankful that she is still getting stronger and able to handle minor surgeries.  We all feel like it's only a matter of time before she will be coming home.  OH what a HAPPY DAY that will be!  Keep the prayers and positive energy headed her way because it really seems to be working.  THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH for stopping by.  I'll be back to write more on her 1 month birthday.  I still can't believe she has been at CHOP for 4 weeks. 

I'll send you off with one of my favorite pics of the two of us.....

We Heart Micah!