A Change in Plans

Well, it turns out that Ella will have her tubes next Friday instead of on Monday. We ran into a bit of a complication. It turns out that Tom's uncle had something called Malignant Hyperthermia which is a genetic disorder that can cause life threatening reactions to inhaled anesthetics, like isoflurane or sevoflurane, which is what Ella would have had for her tubes on Monday. Usually a procedure like that is so short that all they have to have is the inhaled meds rather than IV meds. After speaking with Dr. Krenning at length, we decided to be safe and have it done at the hospital (instead of the outpatient surgery center) and instead of having an inhaled anesthetic, she will be receiving Propofol IV which has no danger of triggering the MH. The chance of this even being a problem for Ella is rare since it would be her GREAT uncle who had the problem, but we are playing it safe. The bad news is that she will have to have an IV, but rather than take ANY chance with the other, this is the route we have decided to take. It is such a scary thought. So it has been moved to next Friday morning. There is genetic testing for this condition to see if you carry the gene, but the most dependable is a muscle biopsy (ouch!). For now we will just be sure to take the safe route with any kind of surgeries (hopefully this is it!) but have thought about some testing in the future. I just wanted to keep you all posted.....boy, nothing can be easy, huh? :) We are just so grateful that we found out about it in advance. In the meantime, Ella is doing great....the antibiotics must be working because she is as full of energy as ever! She hasn't tugged at her ears in over a day, so hopefully the infection is on it's way out.
We're off now to get ready for a play date! Have a great weekend!!