Tuesday Evening, 11/27/07

Nathan's recovery has been slow and steady. He moved from the ICU to a room in the IMC, and has since been moved to a "regular" room on the pediatric floor. The nurses are back to flirting with him, and he's just as ornery as usual. They turned off his fentanol drip a few days ago, giving him morphine as needed. His pain levels seem to be higher than the last surgery, but he also had a lot more work done to him this time around.

It is so nice not having to worry about ostomy bags anymore. His skin is in good shape, even the incision is healing well. I don't know if he'll be home for Christmas, but at least we can imagine closure in the not-too-distant future.

Friday Afternoon, 11/23/07

Nathan's recovery has been pretty smooth so far. They extabated him last night. He experienced some swelling and discomfort in his throat from the breathing tube, which is normal. They've had him on a nebulizer to help with this. Other than that, everything else is fine. It's awesome not having to deal with the ostomy bag changings or leaks.

Tuesday Post-Op, 11/20/07

The surgeon finally came up around 20 minutes ago. It was a very long surgery but the results were positive. They ended up reconnecting his intestines in 4 different spots, with some additional minor repairs and cleanup of scar tissue. Nathan will remain on the breathing tube for a couple days, a G tube for feeding, a catheter in his abdomen in case of leaking, and the broviac (central line) he already had, for nutrition and fluids. The incision was stapled up due to the possibility for infection, with the stomas left open and packed (with gauze) to allow them to heal properly.

Christa and I are in the waiting room now, waiting for them to get him situated in the PICU. We'll be heading home once we have a chance to go in and see him. We're hoping to have him home by Christmas, but there's no guarantees. As usual, I'll try to post updates over the next few days as he comes out of sedation and is extabated.

Tuesday Op-Update, 11/20/07

We've gotten a few small updates from the hospital staff. A couple hours ago one of the nurses called my cell to let me know that the surgeon incised Nathan around 1:40pm and that he was stable. About 30 minutes ago, the anesthesiologist stopped by to let us know that they had to leave the breathing tube in Nathan, but that everything else was proceeding fine and he was stable. A few minutes ago, a doctor came by and told us that Nathan was doing well. The good news is that it's official; he won't require an ostomy going forward (there was still a small possibility). It also sounds like they had to remove very little of his remaining intestines and that things look positive for a full recovery. He also said that Nathan would still be in surgery for another 3 hours, so we've got a ways to go yet.

Tuesday Pre-Op, 11/20/07

We just got back to Nathan's room after taking him to the pre-operating rooms. It was very uneventful, he was in a good mood. The anesthesiologist did her job very quickly, and off he went. The surgeon told us to expect it will take 6-8 hours. They're probably going to reconnect up to 3 sections and insert a G tube (used to feed directly to the stomach). In a best-case scenario, he could come out of surgery without the breathing tube, but I wouldn't expect it.

Going to grab some lunch, gonna be a long day.