Lola's Progress

Hi Everyone!

We hope everyone is doing well! Lola is doing great! Her incision is healing nicely. The doctors are amazed at how well she is doing. Dr. Moss, our neurosurgeon said that she is healing extremely well and on schedule. We wanted to add some new pictures to the blog.
<3 the three of us :)

Lola

Sunday, March 21, 2010

Lola's Surgery


Hi everyone!

Lola is still in the hospital recovering. I am actually in a library that they have in the hospital and I thought that I would update everyone on her status.


Thank you for your positive thoughts, prayers and gestures towards Lola and our family. We are so blessed to have such wonderful people in our lives! Lola went in for surgery Friday evening around 5 PM. It was a about 2 1/2 hours later than originally planned and Lola last ate at 10:30 that morning- needless to say, we had one hungry girl on our hands! She actually did really well and did not get fussy until about 1/2 hour before surgery. The surgery lasted about 2 1/2 hours and she did extremely well. The surgery was much more involved and detailed than originally thought. The drainage tract that was at the base of her bottom, was actually a leakage from the tailbone. When he followed the drainage, it actually was a long tract the weaved underneath the spinal colum and into the middle part of her back- her lumber spine. Here is where it actually turned into the cyst. It basically was a "ballon" of fluid. The doctor removed the cyst and also removed a large fatty mass that was next to the spinal cord. When he followed the drainage tract up, he actually had to lift her spinal cord up (he said like you would lift up a lobster- great visual doc! haha), detach the cord and then reattach it. Needless to say, this takes VERY precise hands and eyes. Once he took out the masses and repaired the cord, he stitched her back up. She does have about a 5 inch incision from the middle of her back all the way to the base of the bottom. The neurosuregon said that he has never seen something quite like this before, but thinks he removed everything and created a good enough space so that she will not get another cyst.




Her recovery so far has been wonderful. She really is inspirational because she is such a fighter and so strong. They do have her on pain medicine and an IV drip. The doctor thinks she will be OK to return home tomorrow! As far as her recovery, it is going tremendously well. She is moving her toes (which is a GREAT sign) and her wound is recoving nicely. A lot of problems that tend to happen will not be able to been seen until future development. Some children have trouble controlling their bowels or bladder. However, so far it seems that this is not a issue. The neurosurgeon stated that typically 1 in 3 will need to come for a follow up surgery, we are hoping this is not the case. Lola is doing amazingly well and we are all so impressed and inspired with her recovery. We must still keep a close eye on the incision and look for fevers (which can be a sign of infection). Please continue to keep Lola and our family in your thoughts and prayers. Love you to all!!



Jen, Chris and Lola <3>

Hello and welcome to our blog!

Hi Everyone!

Welcome to the Reyes blog! We thought that this would be a cool way to keep our family and friends updated on our family. We will be updating everyone on new and exciting things that are going on in our family. We also thought that this would be a great way to keep everyone updated on Lola and her progress with surgery.

Our little princess was born on February 24, 2010. She weighed 5 lb 12 oz and was 18 1/4 inches long. She is absolutely perfect and such a joy. She has her mom's mouth and her dad's almond shaped eyes. Lola is sleeping well, but is quite the night owl. She LOVES staying up until all hours of the night. She is very sweet and is already smiling here and there.

Lola was born with a hemangeoma and skin lesion on her bottom. It is pretty much a dark birthmark on the lower, central part of her back. Since it was on the direct center of the back, the doctors wanted to do some tests to see if the mark was correlated with her spinal cord. We had an ultrasound and MRI done. What the doctors found, is that she has a cyst on the middle part of her lumber spine (the middle part of her back) that is pressing into her spinal colum. The cyst is causing pressing which could be causing the lesion. The neurosuregon really won't know the extent of everything until they perform surgery. Lola will be getting surgery to remove the cyst this Friday, March 19th. The neurosurgeon will also be looking for something called a tethered cord. This is a disorder where part of the tissues are attached to the spinal cord. If she does have a tethered cord, the doctors will simply remove the tissues surrounding the spinal cord so they are no longer attached. If untreated, many children and adults show symptoms of poor growth, bowel problems, uninary tract infections, menigitis and spina bifida in some cases. The surgery will be done at the Phoenix Children's hospital and she will be in the hospital 3-5 days post surgery. The neurosurgeon is very positive about the surgery. She will have about a 4-5 inch incision on her back, but infants heal very well. Please keep Lola and our family in your thoughts and prayers during this difficult time. We have all the faith that Lola will make a speedy and healthy recovery. Go Lola!!