Daily Davis Drama: Stella on the mend

Stella had her surgery yesterday morning and is doing great!! The toughest part was preparing for the procedure. She couldn't eat all day Monday and had to drink 24 ounces of water mixed with Miralax. We would watch a video, pause it in the middle, make her drink ten sips, then resume the video. Not fun!!! I won't go into too much details but of course, there was an enema and a suppository involved. Really not fun!!!! We headed to the surgery center on Tuesday morning at 6:00. After talking to the anesthesiologist and Dr. Krigsman, we put on our scrubs and headed back to the OR. I sat on the table with Stella on my lap and put the mask on her face. Of course, she didn't like that but after five breaths, she passed right out. I laid her down on the bed and Wes and I gave her a bunch of kisses before we headed to the waiting room. We knew the procedure would last 2 hours - Dr. K took 16 biopsies from different areas of her intestines. He took pictures that I will scan so you can see - they show a healthy section versus a "diseased" section. After the surgery, he told us his suspicions were confirmed. Stella does have several spots that need attention and he has no doubt he can cure her inflammatory bowel disease. The pill camera he placed inside her intestines took 5 pictures a second for 8 hours. He will be reviewing those pictures, as well. We have a consultation with him on September 30th to determine her treatment.

Let's talk a second about the nurses and assistants that work at the surgery center. Every single person was so kind, thoughtful, helpful, I can't use enough adjectives to describe them. One nurse is fairly new to Dr. K's practice and she excitedly told us about an 11 year old patient - he had been completely non-verbal since birth. After Dr. K did his surgery and started his treatment, this little boy started talking and engaging others! He is doing amazing work...I have no doubt that his treatment will help Stella and her bowel issues. I don't think it will cure her autism, but I think it's a VERY important piece of the puzzle of helping her be a happy, healthy little girl. And I can't say enough good things about Dr. Krigsman. He has dedicated his life to children with autism who are suffering and he is truly changing lives.

Back to Stella, when she woke up from surgery, she was THIRSTY!! But for the first three hours, she was only allowed to have a few sips of water. She kept asking, "want water, want water." It was so hard to have her speaking so clearly and not be able to grant her request. We did give her a sip here and there. She was exhausted by the time we got home and fell asleep. She was wearing a belt with the pill camera device strapped to her waist. And it was heavy. She had to wear it until 4:30 pm and luckily, she slept most of that time. It was almost too heavy for her to walk around with. When she was awake, we laid in my bed and watched videos while Wes took care of Reese and Drake. At 4:30, the belt came off and she was allowed her first meal. Dr. Krigsman warned us to only give her a snack because she would throw up if she ate a full meal. So she ate two bananas, got a bath and passed out again. We were a little nervous she wouldn't sleep through the night since she had slept most of the day but she did!!!

She had a normal breakfast this morning - bacon, bananas, berries and a granola bar. All 3 kiddos played happily this morning. We took a trip to the grocery story to get out of the house, then lunch. She didn't eat much lunch and I could tell she was super tired. So all 3 kids are in bed (Drake and Stella are napping, Reese is singing "Let it Gooooooooooooooo") which gives me time to update the blog. I love rest time:)

Wes took some pictures on his phone but he left town this morning so once I get those, I will share them. I have a few pictures post-surgery...

Waking up