Saturday!

I am happy to say that Rebekah seems to be feeling better today!  :)  Or at the very least she is tired of laying in her bed and wants to be up and doing things.  She was wide awake shortly before 7:00 this morning, and we started the day with a bath and beauty treatment.  :)  Bekah wasn't crazy about taking some of the stickies off in the bath, but she seemed to relax and enjoyed having her hair washed. 

Some of you may remember from one of my posts a few days ago that Rebekah's voice has been very soft and whispery since surgery.  The first couple of days, we just assumed that it was a hoarse throat from having the breathing tube in.  After several days passed, though, we became concerned that something more might be wrong.  We talked to Dr. Bradley about it Thursday night, and he referred Rebekah for an ENT consult.  The consult didn't happen until late last evening.  We really liked the ENT that we met with last night, and he listened to our concerns about Rebekah and then decided to do a scope of Rebekah's airways to see if there was anything going on.

As it turns out, Rebekah's left vocal cord was paralyzed at some point during surgery.  It possibly has been stretched, or it could have been severed.  The nerves around the voice box go down into the chest on one side and go back up on the other side.  Time will tell whether or not the paralysis is permanent, but Dr. Bradley told us that is one of the areas that he was working in.  As careful as he is, one of the risks of open heart/open chest surgery is damage to the vocal cords.  For now we watch and wait to see what happen.  Her voice could come back in a matter of a few weeks to a few months.  If not, then the damage is permanent and we will discuss options for restoring her voice at that point.

One of the struggles we are already having with Rebekah's vocal cord loss is communication.  She can and does speak, but it is very, very soft and some sounds are just lost.  It has been a source of some frustration here in the hospital in a relatively quite room.  I think our whole family is going to have to work extra hard to make a point to listen to Rebekah.

Another complication of Rebekah's vocal cord is her swallow.  Because the nerves control the vocal cords and swallowing, there is a serious risk of aspiration.  Rebekah has been given the "okay" to have purees and solids, but nothing thinner until she has a swallow study on Monday.  So, no liquids at all for the weekend for sure.  On Monday we will find out if Rebekah can have normal liquids, or if she can have thickened liquids, or if she will not be able to have liquids at all.  It has been a rough day already since Rebekah wants to have a drink with her meals or during the day.  To make up for the lack of fluids, we are giving Rebekah three bolus feeds of Pedialyte during the day.  We will find out on Monday if we need to continue that at home, or if Rebekah will be cleared for liquids.

Rebekah has still been in a fair amount of pain today, despite the fact that we have continued her pain medications.  She is also scratching her incision relentlessly.  She has been getting Benadryl as often as she can have it, but she still managed to scratch off the top half of her steri-strips covering her incision.  Bek's nurse had to come in and re-bandage Rebekah's incision.  We can't keep up with what that girl will think of next!

Look at who is up and walking!!  :)  Rebekah has wanted to "go bye-bye" off and on today.  So, a couple of times today we took walks up and down the hall.  Understandably Rebekah is still a little unsteady on her feet, but we are thrilled that she is doing this well!

Rebekah has another chest x-ray ordered for tomorrow morning.  The x-ray she had early this afternoon still looked "wet," so there is some fluid that she still needs to get off her lungs.  Sitting up, moving around, walking, all of these things will help Rebekah get the extra fluid off.  Also, she is still on an increased dose of Lasix three times a day.

So today has been a little rougher as we've had to deal with some of these little complications, but overall Rebekah is still doing so well.  We are so thankful that God has given Rebekah to our family!  I haven't heard any updates on baby Jackson today, but please continue to pray for Jackson and his family.

Nancy