Surgery Day

12/13/12:  Today was the "big" day for Etta to begin moving forward.  Dr. Downey was confident in preforming the surgery today and was ready for the possible challenges.  The purpose of the surgery is to place the Stoma so Etta can get on with coming home.  Although it may seem placement of a Stoma is a relatively fast and easy process, placement in Hirschsprung's disease patients is critical because the surgeon has to find the area of the intestines that has stopped working by biopsying the tissue and having pathology check for nerve cells.  Although the actual procedure does not take long, but  involvement from the pathology team does take time.  In order to ensure Etta was safe during the surgery, she was intubated with a small tube through her mouth to help her breathe.  Etta's surgery was almost 3 hours long, but well worth the wait, as the placement was successful.  Following the surgery, Etta was extubated about 7 hours later and is currently doing very well.  Her breathing and respirations are good, her pain is under control, she is somewhat coherent, and her color is great.  Dr. Downey has ordered feeding to begin as soon as the doctors think she can tolerate milk again.  Yea!!