Always an adventure at CHOP

I don't know if I mentioned that last time we came to Children's hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), we were only there to see Dr. Campbell in Orthopedics, but Ava got Pneumonia and had to be admitted for several days. Well, yesterday she came to CHOP for an MRI and it was going to be a fairly simple matter, but things got crazy really fast. They had planned to give her a mask of Oxygen while she was under anesthesia but her breathing was worrying the anesthesiologist and he intubated her (breathing tube in the airway). She has been intubated before, but somehow this time it was worse and as soon as she woke up she started gagging, coughing up blood and turning blue. They were concerned about this so they admitted her to the pulmonology department for overnight observation. Ava has been having alot of these dusky/gagging episodes lately especially when in the carseat, but the intubation really enhanced it. The doctors are all concerned but think that the spine/rib surgery will help her. It was a good thing for the doctors to witness theses episodes because it made them take things more seriously and hopefully move things along faster. The issue is just when and what are they going to do. They think alot of it is that she struggles to breathe anyway because of a limited lung capacity, so when anything makes her have to work harder (crying hard or throwing up), she gets dusky and looses oxygen. It's quite a predicament. Supposedly all the doctors got together and talked about Ava on Friday, so we are anxiously waiting for their call on Monday to hear what the plan is. CHOP is a great hospital and we are glad to be near enough to go there.

A cute little video of Ava when she is feeling much better!