Sophia was so brave yesterday! I was very proud of her.
She quietly and obediently let the nurse spray 2 squirts of nasal spray in each nostril, sniffing after the sprays, as told. Then, we went into another room where she sat on my lap, with a large towel over her front to keep food from spilling onto her clothes and my arms around her to help keep her hands down. The doctor introduced himself to her and showed her the scope that would go into her nose. It was long and thin, with a small light on the tip. He demonstrated that it could move back and forth slightly - which made it look kind of like a live thing, to me. I wondered if he shouldn't have shown her, but it didn't seem to make a difference to her. A video screen was mounted high on the wall in front of us, which showed the scope's progress inside.
Initially I could tell she was watching the tv screen as he inserted it - through the little tiny hairs in her nose and farther back. But when he got to her vocal chords, she looked away. The speech pathologist had mixed chocolate pudding with a green dye and came over and gave Sophia about 6 bites of it, one at a time, as the doctor watched it go down on the screen. It was interesting, albeit a little repulsive, to watch the tissues moving the food past. Then came little pieces of a saltine cracker, followed by sips of grape juice. The speech pathologist fed Sophia, and Sophia took everything perfectly, without any protest, all with that little black probe in her nose. I was completely amazed. When he finished, the doctor slowly pulled it out and we went back to the first room. He came a few minutes later to say that everything looked great. She is not aspirating!
We ended up having to wait over an hour for the echo, but that went well, too. She lay quietly on a bed, in a darkened room, with various distractions provided. There was a moving fish scene projected onto the ceiling. On the floor by the back wall was one of those tall, thin water tubes with an inner tube which had bubbles and plastic fish blowing up through it, while stringed lights hanging on mirrors on either side of the tube changed colors and the fish went up and down through the bubbles. The main distraction (or maybe better called the main attraction) was the tv with Dora playing. It worked well for our video-deprived child.
She lay on the bed in a paper gown, with the front open and 3 small "stickers" on her chest, which were connected to wires hooked up to the ultrasound machine. It was fascinating to see her heart pumping - I kept looking back and forth at the illustration on the wall of a heart, trying to figure out what I was seeing in the ultrasound. Because her heart is on the opposite side of her chest, the tech had to ask a more experienced nurse to come take the final 15 minutes of images. She wanted to get the best shots possible for the cardiologist, and wasn't sure how to get a good angle with the heart in that position. Throughout the whole hour, Sophia lay with her eyes glued on Dora and Boots, other than shifting whenever the tech asked her to change positions.
I wasn't able to talk with a nurse today about the images, to see if they've been reviewed. I was told Dr. Manning was out today at a conference.
Hopefully, we will soon have a surgery date and be able to move forward. We expect it to be in the next couple of weeks, according to what Dr. Manning told us.
We are so thankful for your prayers! I have never seen Sophia do so well on procedures like these. She was so compliant. I could feel the tenseness of her body during the FEES study, but she had tremendous self-control. It was a blessing for everyone. The doctor was very happy and told her how glad he was that she didn't kick or bite him. :) Poor guy.
Thank you for praying - please continue! We will update you as soon as possible.
Love,
Kelly
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