Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Kenzie's IR Procedure








Image 1: After Surgery in recovery
Image 2 & 3: Before Surgery
Image 3: Last night in the room with Lilly and Chance

Well it's been a long day but a productive one at least! Kenzie had her procedure today. Dr. Haskal first replaced her g-tube for a j-tube which will certainly help with Kenzie's vomiting. All of her formula will now be fed directly into her small intestines. We expect to be able to give all of it over 10 - 12 hours a day which will also free Kenzie from being attached 24/7 which is how shes been for the last month again.

He then did a venogram through the right femoral (the big vein that is in her groin and leads all the way up past her heart)and found that she was extremely narrowed directly above the 2 stents in her jugular vein. Since she already clotted off her Right jugular back in June, her Left side is her only draining vessel from above the chest. The narrowing and the fact that her blood can only flow on her left side is why she was so symptomatic (swollen). So he performed balloon angioplasty and stretched the vein above her stents... it didn't work well so we got the news that Kenzie got yet another stent. Dr. Haskal added a small 3rd stent right above the other 2. He was really happy with the blood flow after that and hopefully Kenzies swelling should subside quickly.

The bad news besides the 3rd stent is that he is fairly confident that at some point this will happen again. He is hopeful though that it won't happen this quickly. As usual kenzie came through everything like a champ. They gave her versaid (spelling?) before she went in which made her totally loopy. She was giggling at nothing which was so funny for us. It also eased her nerves when they started to gas her which made Jordan and I so much more comfortable then when she is just screaming at the start. She was intubated and under general for the surgery which lasted about 2 hours. The University of Maryland Medical Center is really a gorgeous and well run hospital. We really liked it there and felt at ease.

When kenzie came out other than some low blood sugar and fevers she was and is just fine. Her fever is still high but shes been pretty much sleeping all day. She wakes up here and there cranky but managed to give Lilly a huge smile! (not her parents... just her best friend!) I hope and expect that tomorrow she'll be back to her old self.

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