Getting a Port

Thursday is the Big Day!

Zoe is scheduled to have a port inserted and minor eye surgery on Thursday. It is not great timing with Gavin still recovering, but we are all very eager to get this over and done with. We have known for some time now that Zoe needed a port but had to wait until she was well enough to put one in. A port is a small medical device that will be inserted under Zoe's skin in her chest area. It will make access to her vein significantly easier in the future. Given that Zoe has had some serious illnesses in the last year and they were not always able to access her veins, we are excited to get the port in. It will make things much easier on Zoe. They can give her fluids and take most blood tests from the port. So future hospitalizations should only involve the one poke to access the port.  This last hospitalization involved Zoe being poked by multiple people for almost 18 hours.  She even went to a procedure room so they could ultrasound and scan her veins while poking her but still were unable to get a line in her.  It was heartbreaking to see Zoe go through that.  And also extremely scary since Zoe was not doing well and needing a lot of oxygen at that point.  We were worried what would happen if Zoe got worse but thankfully she started to improve.

We are also very excited to get the eye surgery done since Zoe is having a very hard time with her dry eyes lately. We can see how uncomfortable she is and we worry about long term damage. Zoe had temporary tear duct plugs in the past that worked but they have fallen out. So now the surgeon is going to permanently close off at least two, possibly all four of Zoe's tear ducts. Zoe does not produce any tears and the moisture that her eyes create is currently being drained off by the ducts. So closing off the ducts will allow Zoe's eye to maintain a better level of moisture. We will still need to continue to administer tear gel four times a day after the surgery but hopefully Zoe will be more comfortable and better able to tolerate light. When your eyes are dry, you become more sensitive to the light.  And Zoe is already very sensitive to light so it makes it more difficult for her to enjoy being outdoors.

Gavin is hoping to be at the hospital with us before Zoe goes to sleep.  He will then head home and stay home while I stay with Zoe.  I have a schedule of helpers to be at the hospital with me so that I have someone to help with both the girls.  Since Ailsa is still nursing, she needs to stay close to me.  I think we will all be exhausted but glad that this is done with.  Zoe will be in hospital two or three nights, depending on how things go.

Is Excited the Word Here?

It is weird to say we are excited when really, we are very sad that Zoe needs a port.  We were hoping that Zoe would have a good year and not need this next step.  Zoe had a PICC line last summer and we were very hopeful that was a one time need.  Instead, we have found that Zoe has had several critical illnesses in the past 10 months.  But, here we are, we might as well embrace this next step and celebrate how it will make things easier and safer for Zoe.  So yeah, I am going to say we are excited but there are definitely some other emotions going on here...