What A Difference!

I took this picture this morning as Madeleine is still asleep. As you can see from the picture, she is resting very calmly and honestly, Kirsten and I are amazed by her quick recovery from surgery. What's even more amazing is that she isn't on any pain medicine right now as we were sent home with orders to give her tylenol only when she seems in pain.

Its still early to declare full victory but the surgery seems to be paying huge dividends in Madeleine's quality of life. Besides not having tape on her face-- a huge aesthetic upgrade-- we don't have to worry about her pulling out the feeding tube as the new tube is sutured in and is much harder to pull out. It also is less irritating and much easier to "hide" from Madeleine so it seems much less likely to attract her attention. While all of these benefits are great, the best benefit is that it appears to have greatly reduced the amount of mucus and secretions that need suctioning out of the trach. This is huge as prior to the surgery, it wasn't uncommon for us to suction upwards of 20 times/day. Besides being a pain for us, suctioning is uncomfortable for Madeleine and the secretions are a constant source of agitation. Its still too early to see any impact but we believe that this change will enable Madeleine's growth as she seems much more restful and should burn fewer calories dealing with the uncomfortable nature of the nasal tube.

That's all for now. We'll keep you posted with further updates but right now, know that we're exhaling quite a bit and are excited to have Madeleine back home.