Avery's Sinus Surgery

On Friday, we took Avery in for her very first hospital stay and her very first surgery. That is not an easy thing to do with a 4.5 month old, let me tell you!  Nevermind that we couldn't feed the poor girl for most of the day, or that they would be doing surgery in a very dangerous part of the body (right next to your important eye stuff and right next to your all-important brain stuff), or that she had to go under pretty heavy anesthesia/pain meds... it's just sad to see your baby whisked away by doctors and nurses only trusting that God is in control of it all and hopefully using those good folks to help her feel better.  It certainly is a whole new level of trust we've been learning lately.

Overall, Avery did a great job and our experience at Children's Hospital, once again, was as great as it could be (we'd of course rather not be there, ever). The doctor explained everything to us both before and after, showed us pictures of what exactly he did, and was both realistic but kind and positive the whole time.  We got a private waiting room during the surgery, and our overnight room was nice enough (though the "bed" was more like a slab of rock). 

Here are a few pics from the day/night - the surgery went well, and we learned from the doctor that Avery essentially has sinus disease, a side-effect of her cystic fibrosis, and will almost certainly be back for more sinus surgery every so often throughout her life (hopefully not much!). He found that both her right and left side were filled with some pretty nasty mucous/fungal type stuff (which he sent to pathology and the microbiologists to confirm exactly what it was - later learning there was also some bacteria present, so Avery is on her second round of antibiotics in her short life thus far), but that in addition to that, her right side seemed to develop a bit oddly and was bulging into her nasal passage, even bending her septum out - and he didn't even see a hole to that sinus, so he created one for her and then cleaned it out.  Because she's so tiny (he basically said they never do this sort of thing on babies her age), he didn't want to do too much, so he just cleared out what he could on both sides (essentially that area under your eyes next to your nose), created that opening to her sinus on the right side and tried to widen the opening to the sinus on the left side.  And she did great! (Part of the importance of this in the future is that having that type of blockage could impede her lung function, which is the most important thing for her) She had to stay on a little oxygen overnight just to make sure she was getting enough, and we did have to stay on top of her Tylenol (after the stronger drugs wore off) as she had a few rough patches throughout the night of screaming out in pain, but overall it wasn't too complicated.  (She did somehow knock her IV out in the morning while I was rocking with her, and of course blood squirted out all over me!)

Meanwhile, Benjamin wasn't allowed to come with us, so he had the time of his life at his very first sleepover! Kari and family took Benjamin for the day/night, and he seriously might not have ever come home! They sledded, played games, painted with spin art, went shopping... he was in boy heaven with Noah and Fisher! He even slept in Noah's room with him (and actually slept!) :)  These are a few pics Kari sent me when she got a free second:

We're so thankful for the amazing support in our life - our friends have totally wrapped us in love these past few months! (When we got home one friend brought us dinner and another sent us an amazing bouquet of fruit which we devoured!) Seriously, we can't say how grateful we are for the outpouring of love we have been receiving. It's going to be a long journey for our little girl (and us), but we're so thankful that it's paved with amazingly wonderful people who love us and take care of us through it all.