Laryngeal Cleft Repair

We discovered Colin had a laryngeal cleft in August of 2012. After countless doctor's appointments and procedures we got to the biggest on of them this past Monday.

Starting Wednesday Oct.9 Colin started oral antibiotics for a bad cold that he had. He then entered the hospital on Saturday Oct. 12. They started IV antibiotics so that he would be well enough for surgery on Monday. Sunday night they took him down for a chest x-ray that showed pneumonia in his right lung.
On Monday they decided to go forward with surgery since he wasn't running a fever and had been on antibiotics for so long.

Surgery was supposed to start at 1:15. The doctor was running behind and wanted him to have a breathing treatment first so that was done. At 2:25 I carried him back into the OR room. He was asleep when we walked in. He woke up when I put him down on the OR table. He started crying. I told him that it would be okay and that I would be there when he woke up. He kept repeating, "but I am awake, I'm already awake". Since he already had an IV in they just put the medicine through the IV and he was asleep pretty quickly.

At 3:30 the phone in our waiting area rang. My heart went into my throat. An operator was on the line and said please hold for the OR. At this point I thought I could throw up. The OR came on and a voice I didn't recognize says that there was an issue with the equipment they were hoping to use and that we shouldn't worry, but surgery would be a little longer than expected.

At 4:26 the doctor came out to the waiting area. She told us that the equipment that wasn't working was the laser she had planned to use to make the cut in his throat. So instead she had to use a scalpel. For this reason there was more bleeding and swelling and so she was going to leave the tube(breathing tube) down his throat until the following day and keep him in a sedated coma. She said she was able to get one stitch in (she had been planning two but with a different cut she only put one). She said she would come out in a bit and tell us what room in the ICU he was in.

As soon as she left I broke down in tears. I didn't want my baby to be on a breathing tube. After a little bit she came back out and told us that he was in bed 6 in the ICU.
Chris and I went back up to his room on the 10th floor to gather up his stuff and then went to the 7th floor. We got to the ICU room just as Colin was arriving. We had to stand outside the room while they moved him from the OR bed to the ICU bed. We stood there and watched while they attached more wires than I can count to his body to monitor everything about him. We stood there for almost an hour before we were allowed in the room to give him a kiss.
That was one of the longest hours of my life. We were finally able to go in, but were soon ushered out again and told to go wait in the Parent waiting room.
Finally what seemed like half a day later we were able to go in. We stood there holding his hand the best we could since he had IV's coming out of both hands. I went to get my stuff from the car. While I was gone he started to wake up. Chris  comforted him and told him to go back to sleep. After about 30 minutes the medicine finally kicked in and with both Chris and I holding his hands he went back to sleep.
All through the night someone was in the room every 30 minutes to suction him or check vitals or give breathing treatment. Starting at about 1 am Colin started to break out of the sedation. As long as I was holding his hand he was okay, but if I let go he got agitated.
At 9am he sat almost straight up in bed. The nurse had just happened to walk in just then and started yelling for help. Before I knew it there was about 10 people in the room holding him down, suctioning him and yelling for medicine. He started to turn blue in his face, the upped his oxygen to 100%, he was foaming at the mouth, they kept suctioning him. His eyes were looking at me filled with terror, he kept trying to scream. He had people holding his arms, legs, and one doctor practically laying on his body.  It took about 5 minutes but felt like 30 and they finally had the medicine they needed to put him back to sleep. As soon as he was asleep I told the nurse his mouth was bleeding and I ran out of the room.
  I ran straight to the parent's lounge sobbing. Thank God one of the only phone numbers I know by heart is Chris' cell. I dialed his number and when he answered through sobs I told him "I need you" he said ok and that he would be right there.
  I got myself together and went back to be with Colin. When I got back to the room the nurse was just finishing cleaning him up. She said the blood from the mouth was just from his lip and that his throat was still okay.
 At 10 the ENT and about 10 other people piled back into the room to pull the  tube. They were able to pull it, Colin fought it a little but as soon as enough people cleared out of the way I was able to climb into bed with him and hold him. That seemed to settle him down.
  We spent the rest of the day sitting on the bed watching TV and cuddling. At one point I was sitting by the bed and he told me "Mommy get in bed with me you need me".
  Tuesday night we were supposed to be moved to a regular floor since he was off all oxygen and was doing well, but due to a mis-communication and Colin starting to run a low grade fever we stayed in ICU Tuesday night.
  On Wednesday morning he woke up, no fever, and ate a nice breakfast of pancakes and rice krispies. The ENT came by and said that he was doing fantastic and she was okay with him going home. (Our original plan had us staying in the hospital for another 2 nights). So about 11am on Wednesday morning we were discharged straight from the ICU. This picture on the left is us waiting for his discharge papers. They had unhooked all the wires from him and he stood at the door telling everyone that he was going home.
  For Thursday and Friday we stayed home and took it easy. He is on a soft food diet for two weeks and low activity for a week to make sure the stitch heals.

We won't know for about 6 week if the surgery worked or not. I pray nightly that it did. That hospital stay number 8 is our last but right now I'm not 100% confident that it is.