the surgery that kept on giving...more like taking away

Ellie has always asked to have a second nostril. What parents wouldn't try their hardest to grant this wish for their little girl. So...the journey began last April. Ellie underwent a craniofacial surgery to move her left eye into the correct position and to begin building up the bridge to her nose. The surgery was extremely successful and she recovered very quickly. Within two weeks she was back at school. We were blessed!

The second surgery was on January 4th. The goal was to add more bone to her nose as well as some cartilage to the tip. The bone and cartilage was removed from her rib to form the pyramid portion of her nose with some additional cartilage placed on the end of her nose. The surgery was again very successful. Ellie was out of the hospital in 4 days and back at school a week later. We were so pleased and felt so fortunate that Ellie had not had any complications.

Everything changed two weeks later. One day Ellie woke up with a red spot on the left side of her nose. Within two days time the spot had turned into a large puffy place. On Wednesday January 27th I took her in to see Dr. Kelley. He put Ellie on an oral antibiotic and asked us to call him the following morning to give a report. Unfortunately, the abscess had only gotten worse. Ellie was admitted to Vanderbilt CHildrens that day and underwent surgery to drain the abscess. He also inserted a drain to allow the infection to escape. She was placed on oral IV antibiotics for the weekend with a culture growing to determine the exact nature of the infection. It turned out to be a form of strep that needed a specific antibiotic (not your normal to the doc get antibiotic wait 24 hrs go back to school type). Her meds were changed and the infected site began clearing up. The drain was taken out on Tuesday and Ellie was allowed to go home on Wednesday Feb 2nd. She was to be on two antibiotics (orally) for 28 days. Her nose looked really good with only one small pimple like bump on it, but even it was flesh colored. Ellie was so excited to get back to school...she actually went to school that afternoon.

The following morning (Feb 4th) Ellie once again had a red place on her nose. She and I went on a field trip that day..she had so much fun...and her nose got worse. By the time she got home from school she had a full blown abscess again. I called Dr. Kelley and he asked us to meet him at VCH Emergency. That night one of Dr. Kelley's associates put a drain back in. (this night was so hard...they attempted to insert it with a low dose of meds to help her relax...and it didn't work. She was in a lot of pain and couldn't hold still. They then put in an IV to do IV sedation, Ellie didn't do well with the meds but they were able to get the drain in.) Ellie continued on the IV antibiotics Friday. By Saturday morning her abscess was so bad the Dr. Higdon called Dr. Kelley. They agreed that surgery was needed that day in order to drain the infection. By this point, they were fairly certain that he bone and plate that been put in Jan. 4th had been compromised. Indeed the infection was spreading. They removed the plate and bone, cleaned out the area, and left in a drain in order for any more infection to have a place to escape. At this point the Infectious Disease docs are saying 30 days of antibiotics and plastics is saying at least 10 more days here. I'll update later to tell how it ends....

Wow...it has been a long month! 5 days in the hospital, out for 20, 7 days in the hospital, out for 1, and now 4 days and counting in the hospital. Ellie has been amazing in all of this. She hates surgery...she is really afraid of not waking up. Outside of surgery...she is a model patient. She tolerates all of this so well...all while continuing to warm all hearts around her with that gorgeous, God-given smile. I do not know why she has had to endure all of this. But, even in this, God continues to use her as a conduit. Every nurse and doc love working with her..she always smiles...and many ask questions wanting to know her story. YES, God has a story already written. I feel quite sure it is amazing...what I have witnessed has been amazing. His is the divine author!