To Surgery We Go!

I know that some of you are waiting patiently for the update for the meeting today so here it goes:

The short(er) version of the day is that Mr. B will certainly have his surgeries.  Dr. Brindle is confident (as are all of the Disciplines involved) that is he definitely strong enough to endure all of the surgeries in one fail swoop.  The main surgeries will be the Ladd Procedure (for the intestinal malrotation) and the Fundoplication (wrapping the stomach around the esophagus).  At the same time she will put in a G-Tube feeding tube (port into the stomach), take out the appendix and repair his umbilical hernia.  Michael and I both feel confident with Dr. Brindle and we (that would be me), are mostly at peace that we are making the right decision regarding the risks vs benefits.  It is going to be an intensive surgery that will be through a horizontal incision across the top of his tummy.  Because the surgery is so large Dr.Brindle has said that doing it as an 'open surgery' makes the most sense. 

So now that Michael and I have 'signed off' on the surgery we get to hurry up and wait till Dr.Brindle finds the time to squish Mr.B in since she's booked through till fall!  I guess that is what happens when you are the best at what you do.  We are looking right now at anywhere from 2 weeks to 8 weeks away, hopefully we'll know sooner rather than later.  The nice thing about today was to hear repeatedly around the table from all of the Specialists that they feel he is getting stronger. 

We also made the decision today with Neurology that we will start the wean off the Kepra, (anti-seizure meds).  She feels like he's at a point that he is ready since he's been seizure free for awhile now.  It will be a slow wean to make sure that he has no 'rebound' seizures because of it.  When he was having his seizures he was also still in the acute phase of his brain injury so hopefully when he comes off the meds he'll be seizure-free.

Now, current info:  Mr.B had a very rough day with me.  I spent the better part of six hours there today and he was unsettled through most of it, sleeping for 10 mins and then awake and fussy.  His temp refused to go down throughout the day but has finally broken tonight (just got off the phone with his nurse).  He was pooping every 20-30 mins through the first half of the day so it was coming out faster than it was going in (too much info?).  He is getting fluid through his IV but they did need to bolus him this afternoon as he was certainly getting too 'dry'.  They have him on one of the 'big guns' for antibiotics for now and will change it accordingly depending on the test results.  By the looks of it we are looking at the possibility of an UTI (urinary tract infection), although we were pretty certain it was a gastro-intestinal bug earlier.  He's been switched over to pedialite only for food for at least the next 24 hrs which won't help him grow but it is certainly easier on his little tummy (well, intestine since it doesn't see his tummy!).  I am hoping for the ability to get some sleep tonight as I lay awake most of the night last night with the memories of the Sepsis still far too fresh in my mind.  It is hopefully just a run-of-the-mill infection and fingers crossed he'll bounce back in a few more days. 

The hardest part of the day was this afternoon when they came to do a blood sample and couldn't get my poor duck to bleed.  They had to stick him three times (he was dehydrated which didn't help) and she kept pulling it back, putting it in, pulling it back...ugh.  The women from the lab were great but it took a lot of restraint on my part not to tell them to go away especially after his sats came down dramatically since he holds his breath when he's good and mad.  He was able to come back up with some blow-by (oxygen) and I did cuddle him in between pokes two and three.  The lab ladies commented several times how strong he is, uh yep, if you stuck me like that I'd be pissed too!

One thing he did get was love all day today so that always helps.  His Volunteer was with him while Mike and I were in the meeting so he was well tended to all day.  Thank you to all of you for your positive messages and energy that got sent our way!  Let's just call this a 'blip' as we head down the road towards surgery.