Kennedis surgery

My sweet baby finally had her surgery to fix her breathing.
She has Laryngomalacia. The best way I can explain it, is that she has floppy tissue that partially blocks her airway and makes her breathing noisy.

We went on November 9th for her surgery at Primary Children's. We had to go in super early in the morning, as she couldn't eat from midnight on. The poor thing did not at all understand why we were not feeding her when she was so hungry. I felt so bad. Grandma Heber came to stay the night before with Mckinlie.

Waiting to be admitted:

They prepped her for surgery and did a quick-check. They checked her throat with a tongue depressor and she latched onto that thing and sucked like crazy. When no food came out of it, she flipped. She was so starving. Poor thing was exhausted, hungry and in a new environment but was still so good. She is really the most complacent baby ever. Kennedi has the super easy-going personality of her dad.


They dressed her in her little gown and we had to carry her down the hall. We got to the doors and had to hand her over to the Dr. I felt so sad that we had to just leave her and knowing she had to be put under and go under the knife, but the Dr was so loving with her that I was comforted.

We waited in the waiting room, had snacks, surfed the internet and kept watching for the Dr to walk down the hall. They called our names and they explained what they did, showed us pictures of the inside of her throat while the actual surgery was being done, and told us how she did. The Dr said that he really didn't think that she was full-term when they induced me. He said that she had a hard-time breathing while putting her under, and something about her acting like a preemie in that way. That def didn't make me feel better about agreeing to be induced. But at the same time, we didn't know how my pancreatitis would effect her if there were another flair-up, so it was really a toss-up.

They let one parent go in for awhile to comfort her and then the other can join when you get put in your room. I followed them to her hospital crib & my heart was so broken. The poor thing was all bundled up with wires everywhere. She screamed a lot while I rocked her & they said it was from waking up and still being drugged up.

Poor thing had some issues with not having enough oxygen and had to have the mask for the first day. The day of the surgery was so rough and she hardly took a break from crying.

Trevor went home to stay with Mckinlie & send Grandma home. I stayed until  6pm and then we switched. I had a migraine and was worn-out from rocking my constantly screaming baby for 6 hours. I had my share of hospital stays in the past year, so he stayed overnight with her and I took Mckinlie home.

The next day, her pain was managed, her oxygen was great & she was MUCH happier. It had snowed and the roads were so bad so Trevor bundled her up and took Trax home that runs right in front of the hospital.

Kennedi's breathing is better, but is still there. Most people are curious, but super nice about her breathing. We have had a few people during church that look back at us multiple times and give us looks. Sorry, I know it can be a little distracting but she's not going to stop breathing by you looking back here a million times. I even had someone tell me that she needed to have that noise checked out because she was obviously sick and we should be taking care of that. Yup, we just let our poor baby suffer and don't take care of her AT ALL. *sigh*

This whole process has made us super grateful for our healthy children. This was just a small set-back and we are lucky that it's not anything more serious. It has made me more empathetic to families with sick kids. I saw a lot while we were at Primary Children's and it broke my heart.

We love you, Kennedi!