Surgery is A Go

We will report to Duke Children's Hospital 3rd floor at 9am tomorrow morning. She will be in the holding area until approximately 10:30am. Once surgery begins it could take anywhere from 1 1/2 to 3 hours. She is having a cleft palate repair and auditory brainstem response (hearing) test. The cleft palate repair can last 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 and the hearing test can last 45 minutes to 1 hour. The hearing test is done while she is under anesthesia to check her nerve endings for damage and determine if she has suffered any hearing loss due to the recurrent ear infections from the cleft palate. Once she is in recovery we will be allowed to go back to her and the speech team (feeding consult) will come and help us with her first feeding before being discharged to stay in a room overnight in the main hospital. She will also have "no-no's" on her arms immediately in the recovery room and they may not be removed until her post-op appointment. They are velcro arm bands that stretch from her shoulder to her wrist to prevent her from bending her elbows and reaching her fingers in to the stitched area.

On another note, Kaitlyn has spiked a fever of 103 tonight. Dennis and my parents have taken her to an urgent care doctor in Thomasville. She was already planning to spend the night with my parents. They have been instructed to wake her up every hour to check her responses. If her responses slow, fever increases, or she worsens in any way they are to take her to the hospital. Please join us in praying that she will recover from this strange fever. They have given her an antibiotic but they have no idea what has caused the fever. My dad is staying with her tomorrow. It is hard because all of us want to be with Kyleigh and Kaitlyn at the same time but we can't do it. Dennis, my mom and I will go to the hospital with Kyleigh and once Kyleigh is stable Dennis and mom will go back and help with Kaitlyn.

All in all, I hope we can all get a good night's rest tonight and that Kaitlyn will be better by morning without having to go to the hospital. I also hope we can get Kyleigh through this hurdle she faces tomorrow.