Surgery 7/26

I'm updating from my phone... so these will be short, but I'll try to keep you as up to date as possible :)  We arrived in Dayton at 8am and got everything ready for surgery.  This is the first time we were able to sleep in our own beds the night before surgery... kind of weird, kind of awesome.  Here are pictures of Ellie as we waited to go back.  She was getting very sleepy by the end.

Daddy made her a balloon!

11:30am: They just took her back for surgery.  It'll be about an hour before they'll start the actual surgery and surgery is estimated at about four hours.  I'll update when we hear more.  Thank you for all of the messages and prayers already!  #teamelliebug

12:35pm: Actual surgery is now under way.  They had to set an IV and intubate her and do a quick scope before starting surgery.  But that's where they are now.

1:29pm:  They have just started the "rib harvest" part of the surgery.  I didn't realize until now that they were using a chunk of her actual rib for the repair.  This feels so "Genesis"... you know, creating something new from a rib... cool stuff.

2:37pm: They have now started the grafting in her throat.  Ellie is doing well.  They estimate the surgery taking another hour or so.  They'll call us again when they're wrapping up.  She will go right to PICU from the OR and it usually takes a good hour or so before we're able to see her.  So, assuming all continues as planned, we should get to see her again in about two more hours.

3:28pm:  Dr. Elluru is almost done - should be wrapping up in the next 15-30 minutes.  They will then take Ellie right to PICU. She's doing great.  We'll have at least an hour before we can see her once she's in her room.  Ahhh, I love the "almost to the finish line feeling".  I'll post pics and more updates later.



4:20pm:  Surgery is done.  CELEBRATIONS!  She is now in recovery.  Dr. Elluru said Ellie had a beautiful little rib that came out easily and provided perfect cartilage for the graft.  Her stent will be in for three weeks and covers her vocal cords, so she will be completely silent for three weeks.  Once we're through that, she'll have to have the stent surgically removed (but we were assured that was no big deal).

So now we just wait to go see her.  We are so very thankful for all of your thoughts, love, and prayers that have carried us through today.  I'll update later, but it may be a bit.  Thank you again!  Praise God!

Glimpse of her post-op.  She looks great.

7:20pm:  The first few hours were uneventful, but Ellie's having some struggles with pain and breathing right now.  We're not sure if this is a result of anesthesia or what right now, but it looks like we'll have to be careful about pain management because she's having episodes where she stops breathing... like, she's had ten episodes in the past 25 minutes where she's stopped breathing for 20 seconds or more... or until we agitated her to breathe again.  Yuck.  This has not happened before.  Keep those prayers coming, friends.