It turns out that Kiera showed all the clinical symptoms of needing a dilatation but did not actually need it. Her surgeon said that she was very pleased to see that the esophagus was opened as far as it should be. However, her surgeon did decide to give the scar tissue a little stretch to make sure that the esophagus stayed open. She also examined Kiera's fundoplication and all still looked good so even though Kiera can vomit small amounts of food, her esophagus is no longer experiencing the burn of reflux.
Kiera's ocularist also did an impression of the space in Kiera's right eye. Kiera's prosthetic eye cup was not fitting properly and it's probably because Kiera's head has grown so much in the last little while. So on Monday, Kiera will be getting a new eye which will hopefully not turn upside down or pop out when she retches.
I have been busy today trying to get Kiera to drink small amounts of water but she is still having a lot of trouble with that. We believe she is caching her saliva in her cheeks and then chokes when there is too much to hold. This choking leads to retching. Just in case we are wrong, her surgeon and feeding doctor would like to do another swallow study to make sure that Kiera has the ability to swallow. If she does, then we don't have to be afraid of pushing Kiera a little more to get her swallowing. If there is something else going on, then we will need a new plan for feeding.
No comments:
Post a Comment