Surgery Success!

Just in from outside, waiting in the pre-operation waiting room. Brynn likes to play with fingers:

Yep, lungs check out:
Dad--are you sure you washed your hands today?
With Brynn's tumultuous history, her lungs don't always jump back to normal after anesthesia. But all her stats were great and she didn't have to stay on any monitors for long. (Hooray!) Here she is still waking up from anesthesia:

The hospital was very full and they had a lot of trouble finding a room for us to stay overnight, so Mommy got to comfort Brynn in the wake-up room, where most parents aren't allowed to go. Here Brynn is still a little groggy:
When they finally found a room for us--a tiny space in the same room as two other surgery patients and their families--we headed over there. Mommy carried Brynn to the room instead of leaving her in the rolling bed:
Between Brynn's first halloween costume and this get-up, she's going to have major flashbacks every time we watch Star Wars and she sees Princess Leia:

Daddy played with Brynn and one of her favorite toys--she was pretty much back to normal already!
They finally found a bed for us, which Mommy and Brynn got to share all night and Daddy got to sleep in a chair. Brynn was really mad at her IV, and the fact that she couldn't turn her head with those huge bulbs of gauze, but she got a few winks of sleep when mom positioned her just right. Here you can see that Brynn LOVES tubes, and there is no time to think about IVs or head bandages when tubes are in sight:
We were discharged from the hospital the next morning at about 8 AM. Then once we had gone home and waited 24 hours post-surgery, we were allowed to remove the bandages:

There they are--just tiny little incisions just behind the ear. This procedure has come a LONG way in recent years and we were lucky to have a very good doctor. Visit this site to see how huge the scars used to be. Wow. We are glad Brynn doesn't have to recover from that much tissue trauma:
That same night, even after the pain killers wore off, she was sleeping on her fresh wound just like nothing happened. It's amazing how quickly kids bounce back. Here she is, sleeping on her ear's stitches during her nap today:

Aside from the swelling, you'd never know she just had two cochlear implants put in. She is the same little Brynn we know and love:

We are so grateful this surgery is over with. The best news is that they can do a test in the surgery room which essentially measures brainwaves in response to sound. The test isn't 100% reliable because if a child shows no response, it doesn't necessarily mean he or she won't be able to hear with the CI. But if you get a positive response, then it is certain that the child will be able to hear with the CI technology. In Brynn's case, the audiologist tested each one of the 44 electrodes (22 on each ear) and Brynn's brain responded to ALL 44. The CI works! The nerves work! She will be able to hear! What a relief, especially since the CI is intended to replace a non-functioning cochlea, but will not help if a child has a non-functioning auditory nerve. Brynn showed evidence of a non-functioning auditory nerve in all her early testing, so we were really taking a slight gamble here that the CI would even work at all. What a relief to know that it will work for her!

In two weeks, we'll be able to put the outer equipment on--one ear to start with and then add the other ear later. We'll keep you posted!


Love you all,
Natalie