Out of surgery

Brinley is currently sleeping in the PICU and slowly returning to her normal self. She even gave me some great smiles.
The toe surgery went excellently, probably as good an outcome as could have been hoped for. On both feet the surgeon wound up removing the inner big toe and no extra skin grafting was necessary.
For the laryngoscopy everything looked great in her airway. No scarring and a lot of good growth. There was always the question of the epiglottis and the short answer is she has one but it is small. We're still not sure of the long term functionality of it but it's good that it is at least there.
As for her tongue, the news is not as good. It is still very underdeveloped in the musculature making up the base of the tongue so the surgeon would not like to do any reconstruction for at least a couple more years to give her a chance to grow and have it strengthen and develop more. This was a little disheartening to hear but based on what she saw and where the tongue is now it certainly is the right way to go about it. We also have a clearer prayer target for God to heal her. Pray for the tongue musculature to grow and strengthen!
It was great to hear the ENT say that he was very confident that she could breathe without the trach when she is awake; it's still the question of the tongue blocking the airway when she's asleep if it flops back.
We really could feel God's presence all day and He started us off right as we were walking into the hospital and saw Brinley's NICU primary, nurse M walking about 30 feet in front of us. She was able to come down and get some Brinley cuddles and stares as we waited in the pre-op area. Then, after we got through paperwork and handed Brinley over to go into the OR, we went down to the cafeteria and ran into one of our favorite people in the world, M (I'm gonna go ahead and nickname him "Tire Iron" here. He should know why). Later, we got to spend some time talking and praying with another awesome man of God, G (nickname "Chaplain"). Then my Aunt and Uncle (also our pastor!) visited for a while and got to be there with us when the surgeon came out from operating on Brinley. We also got to visit with some other NICU nurses of Brin's and another awesome woman, the esteemed L (nickname "Reading Rainbow").
So I guess the good news about tongue reconstruction being a couple years away is that she shouldn't need any kind of surgeries or procedures for quite a while. Looks like we'll be learning sign language and teaching Brin until she is able to learn how to talk so that will be fun.
Sarah and I are tired but doing really great otherwise. I credit all the prayers and we so appreciate everyone's encouraging texts and comments and those awesome prayers! Please don't be offended if I don't respond to your texts but I read them all and love hearing from you all!
Brinley will likely be staying the night in the PICU but we'll in all probability be going home tomorrow! She's still on the lethargic side but is finally getting a good nap now and is starting to get back to her normal self. She's on pain meds of course and those will continue for a few days.
Love you all and we'll keep your posted on her progress. If you weren't comfortable around a trach baby before we'll get you used to it :)