Emma the Brave

It's been a busy month for the bravest 4 year old around. When we met with our surgeon in Jackson in September, he told us there was nothing more he could do surgically to help get her more closure and improve her speech. The previous procedures did not do what they needed to do, so Emma was still not able to build up enough pressure for the sound to come through her mouth instead of her nose. While she has improved since we started having procedures, it is still difficult for people to understand what she is saying. Our speech therapists encouraged us to seek a second opinion so we went to meet with a surgeon in Birmingham. We met with him on a Thursday. He scoped her and determined that her P Flap had failed and there were several openings that needed to be repaired. So, he scheduled surgery for the very next week!  It was all a whirlwind of a few days but we were thrilled to have a plan and HOPE.  We arrived at Children's early on a Wednesday for this sweet baby's 7th surgery in 4 years! She's an absolute rock star!

She did a lot of this in pre op.

And we played quite a bit too while we waited.

We were blown away by the amazing staff at the hospital. They were truly incredible and helped calm all of our nerves during our time. Brave girl didn't even shed a tear going back to the OR!

Recovery is always about the same for Em. She wakes up really easily from her anesthesia and then she takes about a two hour nap. Once she wakes up from her nap, she wants her popsicles. All the popsicles. And ice cream. She knows the key to getting discharged is fluid intake so she gets to work. Usually within a couple of hours, she gives us a smile and her personality comes through. She gets all the screen time while we are there and I don't think she hates it😉.   We had the best nurses who made her feel like a queen!

The next morning, our doctor came by and said from the looks of things, our girl was good to go home!  She scarfed down some eggs while we waited on  our discharge paperwork and then we were out of there!

Now we just wait for her swelling to go down to see if this procedure helps her get the closure she needs. She will go back next week for a follow up and until then, it's all the soft foods for our sweet girl. Thank you to everyone who prayed for our Em and encouraged us through all of this.