He told me right off the bat "I've heard and read all about Gracie!"
They did a flexible scope through her nose into her trachea. It was not a happy couple of minutes but we survived. They held Grace and held her down and once again, they were surprised at her strength.
Tell me about it.
Basically we don't know what will happen with her trachea. Most children born with tracheomalacia out grow it by age 2. At birth our tracheas are flexible and then shortly after they become rigid. Grace's is "floppy" which is why she's such a noisy gurgley breather, and it's why she's so susceptible to upper-respiratory infections. She was born with an esophageal atresia, or TEF (tracheal esophageal fistula) which was repaired when she was 3 weeks old, and so we don't know if that repair has caused her trachea to remain "floppy" or not. It's possible that following her heart surgery, her newly fully oxygenated body will really heal itself from the inside out including her trachea. It's possible it won't and they will try a couple different ways to help her live a healthy life with a semi-floppy trachea.
The good news is that her heart surgery can happen soon. As in, as soon as there's an opening. I'm hoping to have a date sometime tomorrow. While the surgery is happening, they will take full advantage of the anesthesia and do a bronchoscope, peek down her esophagus, clean out her ears She has lots of wax and apparently Asian's have the worst kind of ear wax.(?? no I'm not kidding...that's what they said...and the doctor is Asian...seriously.) If there is fluid behind her ears they will do tubes. Right there during heart surgery. I was like...ok then...anyone else want to have at her? How about the dentist..what's he up to? Could we ask a nurse to clip her fingernails while we're at it? I'm just being practical here...good anesthesia is a terrible thing to waste. Amen.
So there you have it. First things first - get the heart all repaired. ASAP. Teeny tiny Chinese baby steps to the rest. I'm going to believe that there is going to be some more miracles and some pretty wild healings in the future for little miss Grace. It wouldn't surprise me in the least if her trachea became rigid and shocked the doctor. It wouldn't surprise me in the least if the doctors who saw Grace's scans from China showing stenosis in her esophagus were dumbfounded that there is none now. Nothing would make me happier than to have only one explanation. God can heal her. He can heal her heart too. Wouldn't that be something...
A mustard seed is pretty tiny.
"Assuredly I say unto you, if you have faith as a mustard seed you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you."
I don't know how God is going to choose to heal Grace. It could be flat out healing. It could be through surgery or dozens of surgeries. There's no doubt that her life has been in His hand and that she is His before she is ours. How she came to be ours still takes my breath away. If I can trust Him through that I will trust Him through this.
Trust Him with me.
2 comments:
Hello, my name is Esperanza García. First, I send you my congratularions for your Gracie. She's a beautiful, strong little cutie. I'm from Spain and proud mami to two fanstastics boys. Oriol (bio) is now 10 y.o and Pau Tianming (adopted from China) is 8 y.o. Oriol was born with esophagical atresia and fístula and underwent surgery when he was 24 hours old. Later doctors detected tracheomalacy and some others issues. We are fighting beside our wonderful boy. I'd like to let you know that there is some groups at yahoo of families parenting children with VACTERL condition, both in English and Spanish. But now the most important thing is to enjoy your child and you are doing.
Timmy has the most productive ear wax glands (? are they glands??) that his ENT has ever seen. They are very 'soupy' and stink badly. He gets his ears cleaned out every 8 weeks. He hated it at first, but then figured out how much it helped. Now he lies still and quiet while the ENT does it. No tubes - the dr. says they would just get clogged up with all the wax he produces.
Audrey, on the other hand, has very dry ears with very little wax.
Interesting comment, huh? :)
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