Burke's Post-Op Recap

Burke's surgery went really well yesterday. The doctor clipped his tongue pretty good and put 10 stitches in on the bottom of his mouth and also on the bottom of is tongue that go all the way out to the tip of his tongue. It looked pretty bad right after surgery but is recovering okay. It is still pretty swollen and we have given him some steriods to help with the inflamation. Since his tongue is so big he can barely talk and barely eat or drink. His talking has gotten better, but he still is very tenative when trying to eat.

The second part of the surgery was to check his airways for scar tissue and she found none what so ever. Yet she did find a significant amount of swelling and inflamation all throughout his upper airways and down into the broncus which goes off to the left and right lungs. I have some pictures and will try and post them later if I can, but it looks pretty bad. The swelling is restricting his airflow and that is what is causing him to wheeze and sound congested most all the time. The pulmicort steriod breathing treatments have been helping because it helps with inflamation in his airways, yet it is not solving the actual problem. She took some samples of his airways and sent them for testing. We will know more in a few days what the results are. She thinks it is either from aspirating or from relux. So, he is back on reflux meds and will be on his thickened diet until we know for sure what is causing the inflamation.

Recovery went as expected yesterday. He was pretty mad and confused when he was waking up from anesthia. He actually was REALLY mad and almost pulled out his IV and all his other wires he was hooked up to. They gave him some pretty strong meds to help him settle down and after about a half hour of thrashing he finally gave into sleep and sleep most of the day. He was transfered to the PICU and was there until we were discharged last night. We thought we would have to stay over night, but our WONDERFUL ENT Dr. Beck saw how miserable Burke was to be in the hospital and told us we could be discharged that night. Oh, how I love when doctors are practical! He slept great last night and woke up happy this morning. He was still gruffy to everyone else, but I did see a smile that he gave to me when he first came up the stairs when he woke up. I'll take that for sure.

So, today his tongue is still swollen and we are trying to wait it out and see what it does with the medicine we gave him for it. He is sleeping now, so I hope that will help a lot. It is for sure helping me because I have so much to do today! I even tried to get organized before I left for the hospital yesterday, but it is amazing how much gets piled up with me being gone for just one day! AHH!! Anyways, I guess all I have left to say is that we are still alive and hanging in there through the crazy recovery period. He is almost way more normal after this surgery than his other bigger surgeries in the past, yet his is so tired and I am sure his massive tongue is just driving him crazy! I did not take any pictures because our camera is out of batteries. So, this post is again a no picture post. I will post updates with pictures of his new tongue- once I get batteries and once his tongues goes back down to a normal size.

Thank you for all your thoughts and prayer phone calls and emails. We love you all and are grateful for your love and support!