Saturday, June 18, 2011

Update on salivary gland ablation...

So Charlie's salivary gland ablation went very well. I was packed and ready for a weekend stay at the hospital (remember last time we were in the PICU for 4 days), but we went home later that night! She has quite a bit of swelling but it wasn't nearly as bad as last time. Her breathing isn't compromised at all and she's not in as much pain (if any at all). We can't really tell how much this round is going to help her. I'll update again once the swelling has gone down. So they did 5 of her 6 glands the first time (1 big gland and 4 little ones) and this time they did just the second big gland. She'll still have saliva production because some new tissue regrows around the scarred tissue.

Before the procedure, hamming it up for the camera:

My little vampire hybrid child:

Post-op (about 11:00am):

A little bruise peeking out from under the band-aid:

Not thrilled but not in a lot of pain I don't think. She cried a little when she woke up but as soon as I got in the room she calmed down. I think she was just scared. Last time she was freaking out and as soon as I'd get her calmed down she'd cough and hurt herself all over again. She didn't even act like coughing bothered her this time.

Oh wait, there's a smile! She was back to her normal self by 1:30pm.

Snoozin' after her pain meds. We had difficulty getting appropriate meds AGAIN, even though I discussed this with them beforehand and let them know that it is UNACCEPTABLE to not have access to pain meds immediately following a painful procedure. Children's is seriously lacking in this department. She didn't even get her regular meds at noon like she should have, which include oxycodone. They FINALLY got her some pain meds at 4pm. And then she was able to relax. The only reason I wasn't hopping up and down and throwing a fit is because she really didn't seem to be in much pain. I'm sure she was uncomfortable though. I'm definitely going to be following up on this complaint.
More bruising (6:15pm):

Leaving the hospital (7:00pm):

And even more bruising the next day:



The swelling is less but the bruising is a LOT more. It looks awful but doesn't seem to bother her. This was definitely a lot easier than the first time.

4 comments:

Katie said...

How awful about the pain meds!! Gosh :( I'm glad it went okay though, and I sure hope it helps her! I love her smile, it's infectious.

Anonymous said...

Glad to hear it went RELATIVELY well. Thanks for posting an update on her so quickly. I've been thinking about how she was recovering.

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Anonymous said...

Hi,

Today we have an interview with the radiologist to operate our son. The intevenciĆ³n is with alcohol injection for ablation. It is the same operation as Charlie? I am very worried, I hope to be the right decision. They offered botox injection but did not know the effect it will have.

Thank you, for your attention