Norah and I went to Yale yesterday to meet with another member of the Dream Team. Dr. Christopher Breuer is a pediatric surgeon, one of the three surgeons who will be in the O.R. with Norah next Thursday. Norah and I both liked him a lot. He was very patient with her (and me), and by the end of the appointment she was sitting on his lap (I wasn’t), putting little pieces of paper with her name on them into his pockets.
He went through the potential complications associated with the surgery, which Dr. Rivkees had already discussed with us so there were no surprises:
- Anesthesia – Complications are always possible but the risks are lower than the drive from here to Yale and back. They use a pediatric anesthesiologist, and I confirmed that he/she will not be reading a magazine like the cutie on Greys Anatomy was when the woman woke up on the operating table.
- Bleeding – There are 10 blood vessels that have to be tied off, so there’s a risk of bleeding in the first 12 hours. Norah will go directly from the OR to the pediatric intensive care unit, where she will have one-on-one nursing to closely monitor her. If she does develop a leak, she will go back to the OR and the same surgeon will fix the problem.
- Parathyroid Gland Issues – These glands control the body’s calcium levels. The parathyroids are right under the thyroid and they can be damaged or become stunned during surgery. If this happens, Norah will need an IV for a day or two. There is a very slim chance that the parathyroids could be permanently damaged but there is medical treatment for that if it happens (it won’t).
- Laryngeal Nerve Damage – If one of these nerves is damaged during the surgery, it would affect Norah’s voice – probably temporarily. If both nerves are badly damaged, it would be a major problem but I told Dr. Breuer not to mess them up and he said he wouldn’t.
- Common Side Effects – Norah will likely experience a sore throat, discomfort when swallowing, and a stiff neck from having it hyperextended during surgery. She won’t be able to eat until the morning after the surgery, in case she has to go back to the OR. They expect her to bounce back quickly and go back to school after the holiday weekend.
Norah will have at least 7 people in the OR with her:
- Dr. Christopher Breuer, pediatric surgeon
- Dr. Robert Udelsman, endocrine surgeon
- a surgical resident
- a scrub technician
- a pediatric anesthesiologist
- and a couple of other people I can’t think of right now
Norah’s endocrinologist at Yale is Dr. Scott Rivkees. By following these links you can read the extremely impressive bios of this team, as well as a list of their projects and publications (here’s a great article about Dr. Udelsman). Norah will be in very good hands.
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