Update from Mia's ear surgery...

Hi Everybody,

Thank you so much for praying!! =)

It was a great 1st birthday for Mia surrounded by family and our dear friend Victoria (whose daughter is also at CRC) praying for Mia at 1:02pm. =) Thank you for joining us from where you were!

This is a short update because I have to leave in a few minutes for Mia's appointment with the Blind Babies teacher. No, she's not blind. =) Her vision is perfect, actually! But this teacher is to help Mia strengthen her eyes, as well as develop her other senses. =) Mariah is wonderful! =)

Mia's surgery was a little different than we expected. We got to Lucile S. Packard Children's Hospital (at Stanford) a tad late, but she was good to go in for surgery on time - or so we thought. The patients' surgeries before Mia took longer than expected, then there was an emergency surgery when Mia was supposed to go in, so instead of going in at 11am, she finally got wheeled away at 3:45pm. I didn't mind the waiting, but I felt terrible for my baby because she hadn't eaten anything since around 5 or 6am!! =(

We found out that Mia couldn't get the hearing test done after all because of a new policy that went into effect a month or two ago. The only way the audiologist will do it is when patients are off of trachs.

The surgery was super short - only about 45 minutes! The doctor came in to tell us how she did and what his findings were when he looked down her trach and during the Bronchoscopy and also looked down her throat with another scope. The good news is that there was a great deal of fluid in Mia's ears, but the tubes went in smoothly and everything is draining. The not so good news is that during the Bronch, it was noted that Mia will need the trach (as it looks right now). Something wrong with her airway - I can't remember exactly. It'll all kind of a blur. =) Mia's vocal cords are also paralyzed, which was sad to hear. Of course, this doesn't mean she's going to stay that way! We just need to be faithful and pray!!

Another bit of sad news is that it appears that Mia's jaw joints are fused shut. The ENT says that he highly recommends Mia seeing a Neurologist and getting an MRI (which I just mentioned to Dr. Silva last week regarding both). The ENT thinks it'd be good to know what would be expected of Mia of she'll need to open her mouth, because if not, then it wouldn't be worth putting her through that torture of multiple jaw surgeries. And surgeries won't even be considered until Mia is about 4 years old anyway.

In the meantime, we are going to continue massaging Mia's jaw and face, and pray, and we'll see what God will do!! =)

Please keep praying for this amazing little girl - she's so precious!!!

I actually added pictures from Mia's birthday and surgery - can you believe it???

Mia's 1st Birthday/Surgery Photo Album

Pray for Cedes, Willow and I as we drive up to Sacramento for the week - we come back on Friday evening. =)

Enjoy,
Rachael <3