Christa arrived at the hospital early this morning. Nathan's swelling has not increased since yesterday. He had a minor fever last night which was relieved with Tylenol. They are still planning to extubate him sometime this morning. The surgeon visited already and commented on how great Nathan looks and how well he's doing. They're going to put an ostomy bag over the two stomas today.
That's all for now...
Thursday, September 20, 2007
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
Wednesday Evening, 9/19/07
The nurses are focused on controlling Nathan's pain levels today. He seems to be doing well, although I noticed some swelling in his face and neck by early afternoon. The rest of his body looks fine, and his stomas appear healthy. I left around 3:30pm to pick up Alyssa from daycare. Shortly thereafter, Christa emailed me to let me know that his stoma is doing very well. The one attached to the section coming from his stomach is already leaking fluid. This is a very good sign that things are starting to work properly.
P.S. I added a post below with an image from yesterday (pre-surgery).
P.S. I added a post below with an image from yesterday (pre-surgery).
Wednesday Morning, 9/19/07
Nathan is surprisingly alert this morning. He's lying in bed right now eyes partly open, holding Christa's hands and watching a movie on her laptop. He even waved to me once, and is mouthing words and able to respond with nodding and shaking his head. I wouldn't normally want to expose him to this much stimuli this soon after surgery, but watching movies tends to make him sleepy. His vitals are good, with a moderately high heart rate. Everything else looks good, including his breathing. There's a chance he will be extubated (have the breathing tube removed) sometime tomorrow. Within a few days after that (or sooner), he could be back to one of the regular wings.
It's hard to assimilate that Nathan really is in better shape than yesterday morning, when he was sitting up playing with toys and chatting. But really, he is. The surgeon did a lot of work to repair "adhesions" (scar tissue, I think) and jumbled-up intestines. It was a lot more work than any of us expected still needed to be done, but we're looking at it pragmatically; we're just grateful that they were able to get it all repaired (sans reconnection).
There are going to be quite a few adjustments for our family in the near future. We're pulling Nathan out of daycare; they've been holding his spot at a reduced tuitiion rate for the last 6 weeks. I think they're going to continue to hold his spot through his security deposit, but we won't have to pay his weekly discounted rate. Alyssa will still be there, so hopefully they'll be back together at daycare before too long.
All in all, I'm not too depressed. We're not where we hoped to be, but it could definitely be worse. It helps to keep an even keel throughout this experience. I took some pictures of Nathan when he was playing on the mat yesterday morning. I'll try to put something up this afternoon as time permits.
It's hard to assimilate that Nathan really is in better shape than yesterday morning, when he was sitting up playing with toys and chatting. But really, he is. The surgeon did a lot of work to repair "adhesions" (scar tissue, I think) and jumbled-up intestines. It was a lot more work than any of us expected still needed to be done, but we're looking at it pragmatically; we're just grateful that they were able to get it all repaired (sans reconnection).
There are going to be quite a few adjustments for our family in the near future. We're pulling Nathan out of daycare; they've been holding his spot at a reduced tuitiion rate for the last 6 weeks. I think they're going to continue to hold his spot through his security deposit, but we won't have to pay his weekly discounted rate. Alyssa will still be there, so hopefully they'll be back together at daycare before too long.
All in all, I'm not too depressed. We're not where we hoped to be, but it could definitely be worse. It helps to keep an even keel throughout this experience. I took some pictures of Nathan when he was playing on the mat yesterday morning. I'll try to put something up this afternoon as time permits.
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Tuesday Evening, 9/18/07
Timeline:
11:30am - Nathan moves to surgery pre-op area
12:30pm - Moved to operating room
2:00pm - Surgery begins
7:30pm - Surgery finishes, Nathan is moved to PICU
Details:
The surgeon came out to talk with us shortly after finishing up. He wasn't able to reattach Nathan's bowels, but that was really a best-case scenario. There was quite a bit of scar tissue on Nathan's intestines, including a large jumble of bowel that needed to be unwrapped and inspected. A small hole was found and repaired near the area where his abdomen catheter was inserted. Small portions of dead intestine were removed at the ostomy and somewhere around 65cm down from his stomach. Both ends of the intestine at this split were finished off with new ostomies (yes, two of them).
Summary:
This was neither a best- nor worst-case scenario. Nathan has enough healthy intestine that he can live a healthy, normal life if he fully recovers. He will have another surgery to remove the ostomies and reconnect everything. There's no timetable on his recovery right now, but it's going to take a while. He's going to be on the TPN and lipids for months to come. They are hoping to get him on some nutrition before long for his intestines and to counter the effects of TPN on his kidneys.
That's about all I have for this evening. I'll add more updates in the days to come as I have time to reflect on anything.
11:30am - Nathan moves to surgery pre-op area
12:30pm - Moved to operating room
2:00pm - Surgery begins
7:30pm - Surgery finishes, Nathan is moved to PICU
Details:
The surgeon came out to talk with us shortly after finishing up. He wasn't able to reattach Nathan's bowels, but that was really a best-case scenario. There was quite a bit of scar tissue on Nathan's intestines, including a large jumble of bowel that needed to be unwrapped and inspected. A small hole was found and repaired near the area where his abdomen catheter was inserted. Small portions of dead intestine were removed at the ostomy and somewhere around 65cm down from his stomach. Both ends of the intestine at this split were finished off with new ostomies (yes, two of them).
Summary:
This was neither a best- nor worst-case scenario. Nathan has enough healthy intestine that he can live a healthy, normal life if he fully recovers. He will have another surgery to remove the ostomies and reconnect everything. There's no timetable on his recovery right now, but it's going to take a while. He's going to be on the TPN and lipids for months to come. They are hoping to get him on some nutrition before long for his intestines and to counter the effects of TPN on his kidneys.
That's about all I have for this evening. I'll add more updates in the days to come as I have time to reflect on anything.
Tuesday Afternoon, 9/18/07
A quick picture of Nathan taken with my phone. This was Tuesday morning before the surgery.
Christa is sitting behind him, one of the physical therapists is to the right.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
