Avery's Procedure Went Well

First of all, thank you all so much for the amazing expression of love and well-wishes that came our way since the last post. We felt it all and it made a huge difference! We love you, love you.

Based on Avery's history of Croup, her ENT wanted to perform a laryngoscopy (visual examination of her throat and vocal chords) and bronchoscopy (air passage and lungs) to determine if there was anything abnormal contributing to her excessive Croup cases.

Here she is after being admitted this morning.

She's showing you where the doctor is going to have a peek.

The Children's Hospital came very equipped with lots of interesting toys. In her loopy state (they gave her some kiddy-valium) she became fascinated with this helicopter. They also gifted her a teal and magenta beaver named, "Chewy."

Her procedure lasted all of 20 minutes. Her doctor came out to the waiting area and showed us several pictures from her procedure. The great news is that she handled the anesthesia with flying colors and that they did not find anything serious. The "good" news is that Avery's lower throat near her bronchi is on the narrow side (which explains why an "average" inflammation that would cause discomfort in another child becomes a Croupy mess with Avery). The reason this is "good" news is that she does not require further medical intervention--she will grow out of it naturally by age 4-5. The reason this is not "great" news is because we are probably looking at more Croup in our future... 

I've had a paradigm shift: I've decided after our brief stay in the family waiting area of the Children's Hospital with all the other people worrying and waiting for really sick and serious cases, to be grateful that my otherwise strong and healthy baby only gets Croup once in awhile.

(She seriously hated her IV.)

(But managed to forget about it momentarily while enjoying 2 bright orange popsicles and watching a "show" on her very own tv above her bed.)

Finally, we were given the "go-ahead" to head home. We took some orange-stained cheeks and fingers with us to remember our morning.

We were even done on time to pick up Sissy from preschool!

xxoo