Surgery Pictures

Update on Devany's Surgery!

First of all, I would like to apologize for not blogging sooner. I know some of you have been waiting to hear from us and how Devany has been doing. We have so been so busy getting things back to "normal" and have been just so tired from all the stress of everyday life! Well, starting from the beginning.... We went to UCLA on the 28th of March to have her admitted at 8 am. She then went down to get prepped for surgery and was supposed to go to the operating room by 10 am. Not so much the case. We waited and waited until about 1 pm and the doctors finally came by along with the anesthesiologist. They gave her a med that would help her to "relax" so the separation anxiety wouldn't be so hard for her when they took her for surgery. I wish they could've given me some too. LOL. Well, we waited a few minutes for the med to kick in and we could really tell when it did. Poor baby, she seemed really out of it. Well they explained the procedure one more time to us and had us sign all the consents. I think at that moment is when it really hit me. They then took her from us and we walked with them to the doors of the O.R. and we gave her kisses and told her that we'd be waiting for her and that we'd see her as soon as they said it'd be okay. It brought me great comfort when Dr. Bradley walked by us as he was going to the O.R. and told us not to worry and that he was going to take great care of her. After shedding a few tears we headed back upstairs to the Surgical Waiting area. We checked in with the woman at the desk and began the dreadful waiting period. We waited for what must have seemed like forever. We got a bite to eat and was on the computer, (thanks Uncle Jun for letting us use your lap top!) trying to make the time go by a little faster. The phone at the waiting area's desk rang and they said that it was for us. That made me extremely nervous because they never call us, Dr. Bradley usually just comes out to tell us that everything went okay. So when I got on the phone, he told me that everything went well, they had no complications and that he called because they were still in the O.R. cleaning her up and getting her situated to go to the Recovery area and he just wanted to let us know that everything went well. It was such a relief that my baby was okay. Now we have to prepare ourselves for the after care. So they tell us that one of us can go down to see her so Henry let me go first because he knew how anxious I was to see her. I went down to the recovery area and when I walked in the double doors I could hear her crying. Hearing her cry the way she did I could tell that she was in so much pain. She had a patch over her eye and a whole gauze (they call it dressing) over her head, almost like a burn victim would wear. I walked up to her where there were 2 nurses there one doing her vitals and the other holding an oxygen mask to her face trying to console her. I went to her said and said "Devany mommy's here" and she stopped crying for one second to say "momma" and tried to pull me towards her. I asked the nurses if I could hold her and they said of course! I held her and she stopped crying. They gave her some Morphine for the pain and they said that it was okay for Henry to come and see her too. We stayed in the recovery are for about 2 hours and then they transferred her to he Pediatric Intensive Care Unit. She stayed there over night and the next day the doctors came around and said that it was okay for her to step down to the Children's Hospital. They said that she could be on a clear soft diet when she felt like eating. At that point she wasn't very interested in eating, I think she was still in too much pain. So Saturday afternoon she gets transferred to the Mattel Children's Hospital also located in the UCLA medical center. The nurses there were great. They kept offering us things to drink, eat and asked us if there was anything we needed for Devany. Saturday night Devany got a surprise visit from her cousins Marlie and Aubrey and her Aunt and Uncle, Leslie and Mark, and Auntie Anna! I think that totally lifted her spirits! She got up and out of bed, drank some juice and went walking down the halls of the children's floor. Thanks Marlie for pulling Dev's I.V stand along! :) Devany watched cartoons for a while with her cousins and then got a bit sleepy. We put her down and she fell asleep. Sunday morning Devany was almost back to her normal self and was more than ready to go home. She was jumping around in her bed and was getting a bit irritated with the nurses touching her. The doctor came around and said that if we could get her to eat some food then she could go home the next day. I don't know if she understood what they were talking about but that day she ate a bowl of soup, 2 Popsicles and drank 2 juice boxes! We were so proud of her! So, Monday morning the doctor writes her discharge papers, and we head home. The aftercare for this surgery wasn't too bad. All we had to do was make sure that the sutures didn't get wet or infected, give her the antibiotics and change the gauze on her eye. She wasn't in much pain at all at home. She is eating regularly and is back to running around being Devany! Today we went back to the UCLA medical center for her post0op follow up and they removed the remaining stitches and just took a look. Devany threw a fit! She really doesn't want anyone touching her eye. Dr. Bradley said that he is very pleased how well she is healing and that the swelling should be going down soon. He wants us to see an Opthamologist in Long Beach named Dr. Choi. He specializes in patients with Cranofacial defects. So we will be heading in that direction soon. Devany no longer needs to wear the patch over her eye. It looks a bit swollen and bruised but it's healing very nicely! We are so thankful for Dr. Bradley and the whole team that he has working with him, also for the wonderful nurses that take such good care of our baby while she's there! I will be posting some pictures soon, when I figure out what I did wrong because it won't let me upload them. Thank you to everyone who has kept us in their prayers and have offered services to us! We love you all and are very thankful that we have people like you in our lives!