Addie's Surgery

Wow!! What a trooper our little Addie is. On Thursday, May 19th Addie went into Surgery to remove the Branchial Cleft Cyst that she has that got infected back in January. The ENT doctor knew that her surgery was not going to be clean cut, but it was the only way to make sure that it wouldn't get reinfected and be in that scary situation again. TJ, Addie and I headed up to Primary Children's at 10AM on Thursday, May 19th. Addie was then taken into surgery at 11:30AM where we tried to patiently wait and be calm through the whole thing. The nurses kept us updated every hour on what was going on, and how Addie was doing. After 4 LONG hours the doctor came out and said that he was able to get everything out, and Addie was doing great. PHEW!!!! So, this is what he had to do: He opened Addie up through the same incision that he went into before when they drained the cyst. He then had to remove all the scare tissue from the last incision and saw that there was still a lot of inflammation in there which he was suprised since it had been almost 4 months (he also said that it would have definitly got reinfected here soon if we wouldn't have brought her back in for surgery). He was able to locate the cyst (which was a worry that he would not be able to find it) and remove it. The cyst had punchered into Addie's vocal cord box which they were able to cut the cyst out of and sew the vocal cord box back up. They then had to remove her whole left half of her thyroid since it was damaged from the cyst getting infected back in January. They then put a drain tube in to drain any blood & fluid out of her neck so it wouldn't get infected. On top of all of that Addie had a tongue tie (tight, thick skin under the tongue) that the dentist wanted to get cut soon, which was affecting her speach as well. We were able to have the ENT doctor cut that while in surgery so it was all done at the same time. WOW! RIGHT?? Addie came out of surgery a little ticked off at her Mom & Dad, but was really good on all of her vitals. YEAH!!!! Now we are in waiting mode. Addie still has the drain, and that is what is keeping us up at Primary's. I guess they want a minimal amount of fluid coming out, and there is more than they want to see at this point. The doctors are just being really cautious with her so she doesn't get reinfected in that same spot that could damage more. They say that it is about a 95% chance that they cyst won't come back, so crossing our fingers that Addie is part of that percentage. We are all doing really well other than that, just furstrated that Addie is her normal little BUSY self but we still have to keep her at the hospital until the fluid level goes down. She is the cutest thing ever, and this time around is much better than the last. She is happy as can be, and LOVES all the extra attention she has been getting from nurses, doctors and family. We are hoping to go home tomorrow, but only time will tell. Thank you for all the prayers, love & support that all of you have sent our way. You all have kept us strong through all of this. Hopefully this is the last of Addie being in the hospital.