Surgery Day

Today as we walked into the NICU room we saw little Noelle back in her isolate (warming bed) I felt like we had taken 5 steps backwards. Her nurse then came in and explained that the isolate is routine for surgery days, she was still maintaining her body temp as needed they just place her in there to be able to prep her for surgery with out having to get her dressed and wrapped in blankets multiple times as nurses and docs came in to do their prep work. I felt better knowing that she wasn't regressing as she had only been in the open crib for a few short days.



The morning was busy with nurses and doctors in and out of the room making sure they had all the correct information, prepping her and making sure we were informed on what would take place. The doctors also discovered as they were assessing her airway for intubation, her pallet is cleft anterior and posterior (in the very front of her mouth and in the very back, the middle is fused together). They think this could be related to her feeding issues. No wonder it's been so hard for her to eat and takes her so much time and energy.



So after Noelle was prepped and ready to go we walked with her medical team from the NICU to the operating room, there we shook hands with the surgeon and wished her luck and sent her on her way.



Lucky us, we have dealt with a number of surgeries in our marriage, a couple for Jake, a few for myself and one for Sadie, having these experiences behind us made it a tiny bit easier to watch them wheel away my precious tiny newborn. However it was still hard to swallow the lump in my throat and walk away to wait in the waiting area for our names to be called to talk with the doc after her procedure was complete.



As I watched the clock tick, the hour seemed to creep by, with anticipation I sat on the edge of my chair waiting and waiting. Finally at the hour mark, we heard our names called, they took us back to talk with the surgeon. He told us that surgery went great, Noelle was recovering and would be waiting in her NICU room for us. He also mentioned that he did find two hernias that will need to be fixed surgically in the next few months.



Little Noelle is such a tough girl and has been so good through all the procedures and tests. Some days its hard to hear the problems we will be dealing with, other times I just keep reminding myself that God won't give me more than I am capable of handling. I hope we will continue to have the strength to fight and stay positive because I know that she will continue to fight and will be home with us soon.