Surgery Plans

 Tomorrow is the big day. I just talked with the GI doctor who will be doing Lily's procedure tomorrow. The plan is to dilate her esophagus a little to see how much it will stretch. Then he will most likely make a few cuts or incisions in the scar tissue in her esophagus to allow it to stretch more. Then he will place a metal stent that will stay in her esophagus for about a week to help keep it stretched open. The stent can be uncomfortable, so they will give her pain meds and anti-nausea meds. They also plan to change her feeding tube to the type that goes just past her stomach (called a GJ tube). That way her feeds can bypass her stomach and she will be less likely to reflux or have discomfort from a full tummy. After a week, they will remove the stent and most likely place a larger stent to stretch her esophagus even further. She may stay in the hospital for one more week and have it removed, or there is a chance she could come home for a week or two after the larger stent is placed if she is doing well and handling the stent well. We would come back to have it removed. Then she will have a follow up EGD within a couple weeks. 

There is a chance that she won't get the stent placed if the incisions cause a leak in her esophagus. It's not likely, but still a possibility. Then she would need something called a wound VAC that would help keep her esophagus dilated, but also suck out anything that leaked out of her esophagus. Not the ideal route.

We are praying things go as planned for a change. Lily doesn't usually stick to the original time line or plan, so we are not feeling too optimistic to be honest. If the stenting and incisions don't work, she would need to have the scar tissue resected, and her esophagus restretched and attached all over again. I don't want to think about that right now. Just going to focus on one day at a time and pray that things go well. The staff here at BCH have been great so far, and we're grateful that she is being cared for so well.