Scarlette's surgery update

Hello to everyone!

I am sitting in Scarlette's hospital room and it is 7 a.m. and I thought I would update everyone about Scarlette's surgery and recovery. It was definitely not without its trials but as the end is now in sight it makes everything worth it! Her surgery lasted about 4 hours and could not have gone more smoothly. It was done thorascopically, meaning they made small incision and inserted a camera, then made another small incision and inserted the device used to attach her diaphragm to her chest wall. She had enough diaphragm in the back to cover what she was missing in the front so they were able to pull it up and attach it without any major complications. On Wednesday night she had a minor bradycardia, where her heart rate dipped into the 80's so they did a chest x-ray and thought that it might be due to oversedation. She had two more episodes on Thursday which led them to believe it was due to pain from her chest tube but since it was still draining fluid they could not remove it. At this point they put her on a higher amount of oxygen and did another x-ray. They found that her left lung had collapsed, due to pain and being positioned on that side for the length of the surgery. They had to put her on different form of oxygen on Friday to give enough pressure to pop her lung back open. By Saturday afternoon everything had resolved itself and both lungs looked really good. So they put her back on 2 L of low flow oxygen and monitored her. On Sunday, she was weaned down to 1 L and then 1/2 L, then Sunday night she was moved from the ICU to the surgical ward. I spent the night with her last night and did all her feedings and she took her entire bottle every single time! We also decided to take her off he O2 and as I sit here now she has been off of it for 13 hours and is doing amazing! She gets to come home today, at noon and off o oxygen!!!

This journey has been amazingly tough, but the Lord has granted all of us such peace and patience. My sweet little Scarlette has definitely been healed, and as if that wasn't enough for the Lord to bless us with this morning, for the first time ever, she smiled at me intentionally! It was the biggest, most beautiful smile I have ever seen!! What a joy this child is to behold, and what a testimony of the Lord's faithfulness to us.

Love,
the Skrove's

Scarlette's Surgery Date is set!

Hey all~

We have been super busy with tons of doctors appointments but I just wanted to write really quickly to say that Scarlette's surgery is on November 25! We go tomorrow to be cleared for surgery by the cardiologist, then we have cleft palate clinic where a team of specialists gets to work with us and Scarlette and teach us about all the different aspects of cleft. It's a five hour clinic but it should be very helpful and answer a lot of our questions. Then we have a urology appointment, a follow-up with our pediatrician, we get to meet with the pulmonologist and the home nurse will be visiting on Thursday. Then Friday we have our pre-op meeting with the surgeon at Children's hospital and hopefully miss Scarlette will not have any more appointments until her surgery on Wednesday! She will be in the pediatric intensive care unit following her surgery, I am not sure how long but probably until the Sunday after Thanksgiving. We are sad our baby has to be in the hospital for her first Thanksgiving, but even so we have SO much to be thankful for and are so glad that they are not waiting on performing her hernia repair. Please keep her in your prayers, ask for her strength as well as ours, we have heard that your child being in surgery is one of the hardest things a parent will go through, and we are trying to prepare ourselves! Love to all, and we will keep updating!

Love,
the Skrove's

Scarlette is 2 months old!

Hey everyone,

Well Miss Scarlette was released from the intensive care unit last Saturday, and is doing great! She is adjusting nicely, and aside from a little bit of stomach upset and wet diapers, she never cries! She is a total primadonna and we are loving every second of it! Recently she has learned to put her hands on her face (and pull on her oxygen tube), put her fingers in her mouth, and purse her lips. She is smiling now, but usually only when she is about to fall asleep and when she has gas!

We had her first pediatric appointment on Tuesday and we are so blessed with a wonderful pediatrician. Our doctor took the time to fully review her case and respected my input. We discussed her hernia and both decided that her repair should be done sooner rather than later! We have our consult with the pediatric surgeon tomorrow and he is looking to do the repair in the next couple of weeks! The pediatrician said she had never seen a baby go home before a repair (a miracle we all prayed for!) but that usually babies only need oxygen for a month after their repair in the NICU! Which means she could be off oxygen before Christmas! Hallelujah, no more cords!

We have a home nurse who visits twice a week to make sure we are caring for Scarlette adequately and so far we are passing, LOL! The other night we almost had a crisis when the tube that goes down Scarlette's nose into her stomach snapped and started leaking. I had learned how to insert the tube but had only done it once so I was quite nervous but with Mom's help (ie: pass me the scissors, pass me the tube, pass me the tape!) I was able to get it into her stomach! I have to admit I was pretty proud, it is not the easiest thing in the world.

Scarlette got her first bath at home last night and didn't love it, but she loved her baby massage with lavender lotion that followed. We will update as soon as we know the date of her hernia repair! Other than about 10 other follow-up appointments with specialists, nothing else is scheduled for right now! We are so glad to have Scarlette home with us and we love watching her grow and learn and become healthier by the hour!