Just another block in the road...

Welcome back to our blog.  We hoped to only have updates like school events, and Halloween costumes, but this week, we've hit a little snag with Sophie's health.  Fortunately, it's not related directly to her problems of the past, rather a complication of the surgery that removed the nasty tumor.  Here's the whole story...

On Thursday (10/28), the school called me to let me know that Sophie had a tummy ache after lunch, returned to class after a short rest, only to return later with more pain.  I was on my way, but not quick enough, and we agreed that she should go home on the bus and I'd meet her there - she wasn't nauseous , so at the time seemed like a good plan.  Well, apparently within minutes of going on the bus, she threw up :(  So now she was not feeling well and mortally embarrassed. So I rushed to the school and brought her home where she headed to her room to lay down and threw up again.  It was obvious that she shouldn't eat or drink anything for awhile.  We laid her down to rest with bucket and towels and though she was in intermittent pain and threw up a couple more times, she was able to sleep through the night.

An angel on Stonegate grounds!

On Friday (10/29) she awoke feeling better, but still in some pain.  We waited a few hours and started introducing some water every 20 minutes or so and then some plain toast.  Bad idea, very bad.  Within a half an hour she was in extreme pain and then threw up everything.  This was around noon and I'd planned to go to school a bit later to take some pictures of Zach in his Halloween costume at the parade and party. At first she was fine staying home with her Meema (Mike's Mom), but as the time for me to leave drew closer, she started to feel much better, so we decided she could tag along, in her angel costume of course, to wave at her friends and Zach.  We stayed for an hour or so and she enjoyed being out of the house and part of the action - but she was still really tired.  As soon as we returned home, she crashed on the futon in front of the tv for the evening.  She woke up just before dinner and wanted some soup, so thinking it was solids she was having a problem with, we tried some princess chicken noodle soup.  She had a small bowl and a cracker and did well for some time.  Then it started again, but this time the pain was worse and the vomiting was more violent.  This got worse throughout the night with the final, terrible, projectile episode at about 2:00am on Saturday - then she went off to sleep until morning. 

Ms. Thebaud's Halloween Party

By Saturday morning Sophie was not intreseted in eating, but snuck in about a half a cup of water and promptly threw it up. We knew it was time to seek help.  She was so tired she would walk into the kitchen and lay on the floor to rest.  We got organized and drove to the Georgetown Univeristy Hospital ER where they confirmed, through an x-ray, our suspicions that she had a intestinal blockage.  We were admitted to the pediatric floor by 7:00pm and later they inserted an NG tube - very much against Sophie's will and wish - and we settled into C53 for the first time in more than three years.

Sunday was Halloween - tough for Sophie to accept she wasn't going to be able to participate in any of the parties or trick-or-treating that night.  There were any tears that day, but we ended the evening on a great note, reverse trick-or-treating areound the pediatric units, bringing candy to those who could have it - including the nurses :) and little halloween trnkets to those who, like Soph couldn't eat candy.  Sophie dressed in her costume - wings, halo, feathers and cupcake pj's.  She wasn't her bubbly self, but she did smile and really enjoyed helping others to smile that night.

Reverse Trick-or-Treat-ing on C53, C52 & C51

Monday was a bit of a game change.  We thought she was getting better, and really hoped that the blockage would resolve easily on its own.  Following the morning x-ray, the surgeon, a wonderful human being - Dr. Chahine, indicated that Shopie was not only not getting better, but seemed to be getting a bit worse.  We planned to repeat the x-ray at 1:30pm and see if we would indeed, need surgery.  Well, several hours later, we got the word that surgery was imenent.  By 6:00pm we were wheeling into the OR with her blankie, Cinderella and my 'bunny suit' on - cute, right?

In pre-op waiting, preparing...

So the surgery went well, they actually started at about 7:00pm and finally called that they were closing around 9:15pm.  Right on schedule.  About 45 minutes later, a visibly tired Dr. Chahine came by to explain what happened and what we can expect over the next few days.  He recounted that the blockage was quite serious and was likely building over time creating a series of four 'pleats' one folding over and into the other, completely tieing off her small bowel and causing all of the distress.  He said he'd never seen anything wuite like it before.  That's our Sophie, she's one of a kind ;)  Because the blockage was likely there for some time, parts of the bowel were in distress and to distended to save, so they removed about 15 cm of it and thankfully were able to sew the ends together with no addtional intervention necessary - there was a riskthat if the bowel was severely damaged they might need to pull it out, give her a colostomy and then perform another  procedure after several months to bring everything back into her body.  Obviously we are very grateful that this was avoided!

So tonight (11/2), 24 hours after surgery, she is resting comfortably.  The day had it's challenges, but she ended like the trooper she is, insisting that she get out of bed unassisted to do some 'business' and get weighed.  If we didn't already know it, it's been confirmed now - she's tough as nails - don't mess with Sophie!  Tomorrow I hope she'll be up for some art and playing with her new Barbie dolls.  I'll post more as we know more - inlcuding pictures!

Thank you all for your continued thoughts and prayers!  We hope your loved ones are well tonight!  PEACE!