A Pre-Surgery Update

Hello from Charlottesville!

Lily did great on the trip here. It's about a 2.5 hour drive from Blacksburg and she slept for most of it! This was our first "long" trip with her in the car seat, and she usually doesn't fall asleep in the car. She also took a bottle that had NOT been warmed up! I know that may not seem like a big deal to some of you, but for Lily that is huge. When we first adopted her she wouldn't take any bottle that wasn't VERY warm. Now she will take room-temperature and even cool!!

We went straight to Lily's ENT (Ear, Nose and Throat) appointment and we REALLY liked the doctor. He has experience with children with Down Syndrome, so he was able to compare her to other kids with DS and not just other kids in general. This was really helpful for us. We learned that Lily's ear canals aren't terribly small for children with DS, and he didn't see any problems. Her sinus congestion is typical for her small sinus cavities, and may also be related to her elevated thyroid levels. They are going to follow up on that for us. He is also going to perform a bronchioscope tomorrow while she is under general anesthesia, just to get a good look at her throat and make sure there are no problems.

Then we went to the hospital for Lily's pre-anesthesia appointment. Our ENT assured us that there should be no problem sedating her, but the doctors we saw at the hospital were being very cautious and took some time examining her to make sure everything would be ok. In the end she was cleared for surgery, and we will be back to the hospital tomorrow morning at 8:30am!

Please pray for her surgery to go well tomorrow. Also please pray that they determine she IS a candidate for repair surgery! (And if that repair surgery could be performed ASAP, that would be wonderful, too :))