Minor Setback

Yesterday, I was woken up by the NICU doctor and I knew something was up.  I asked her if Sonny was okay, and she said, "He thinks he is."  During a routine xray Monday morning, they found that Sonny has an isolated perforation in his bowel, likely due to restricted blood flow in-utero.  She said she would talk to one of the surgeons here to see if he was comfortable doing surgery on Sonny; if he wasn't (since Sonny is only 2 lbs., it makes a lot of them nervous to do stuff), Sonny would need to be transfered to Milwaukee Childrens' Hospital, which is almost 3 hours away.  Luckily, he agreed to do the surgery yesterday morning to place a drain tube in his abdomen allowing the free air and fluid to come out and I chose to have the chaplain come and baptize him.  It was a short little ceremony and we have a little white hat, christening gown, and blanket as keepsakes, as well as the shell that was used to pour the sterlized holy water over his head and the certificate.  They opened the top of the isolette so I could go in as much as possible and "snuggle on him".

I was very worried about the surgery and of course, the outcome.  In 1/3 of these cases, the hole will close itself.  The other 2/3 of the cases are split evenly between those who do okay for now, but need a more involved surgery when they're a bit stronger and a few weeks older to repair it...and those who have a lot of complications arise that, needless to say, don't do well afterword.  Unfortunately, it can take up to a week to know which outcome it has had; but they did say that usually, if something bad is going to happen after the surgery, it's within 24-48 hours.  Basically, I was a nervous wreck and had a literal breakdown in the family room right as they would be starting the surgery.  I buckled and bawled and had to be held up by my husband and my grandmother and it was awful.  The memory of my feelings bring tears to my eyes even now.  It is not my proudest moment by far, but I really felt as though I couldn't handle it.

As I write this, Sonny is just about 24 hours postop and is doing "surprisingly well"; he's on a lot of medications for various things right now and is still sedated to keep him comfortable and out of pain.  But last night was taken off the paralytic medication that was keeping him still so as to not disrupt the surgical site, his blood work is looking very good for the most part, has only needed to be on in-room air with the ventilator after surgery rather than needing any oxygen (nurse said that's a really good thing and a great sign).  They had thought they may need to do a transfusion but haven't had to so far.  His blood pressure is a little low so there's a medication for that; his bilirubin has taken a major plummet since yesterday morning and the doctor thinks he should be off the light by tomorrow!!  Way to go, Sonny!  :) 

It's a lot of information and I'm sure I've left a detail or two out, but that's the gist of it.  We still need lots of prayers for him, since he's not yet out of the clear.  Of course I hope he's a fighter, but it seems to me he is one because even while sedated, he had enough spunk to increase his respirations rapidly while doctor was poking at his belly!!  She said he flinched a little too.  :D