Here's the latest... Fin will be having his second surgery tomorrow. This will be considered his "closure" surgery even though he will require probably one more. First let me say what an amazing brave boy we have here! He had two reductions yesterday and one this morning with the result being that almost ALL of his omphalocele is back inside his little body. This is a good thing, however, all the reducing has required the surgeons to put him on a paralytic which basically paralyzes his whole body. It's necessary in order to keep him completely relaxed so that his muscles and skin can stretch to better accommodate his newly placed organs. It's a tight squeeze! Good for his body but not so good for Mom and Dad! It is unbelievably difficult to watch him not be able to move or even open his eyes. Thankfully, our nurses are so attentive and they are able to determine if he is in pain by watching his vitals closely and they are able to give him extra pain medication if he appears to be in distress. This happened a couple of times today and with a little soothing from Mom and an extra bump of fentanyl, his heart rate and blood pressure calm down.
A few people have asked why the surgery is being done so quickly and there are a few reasons. Number one, the organs are susceptible to swelling due to the fact that they are somewhat exposed because of the ruptured sac. Swelling would obviously be bad because it would make it more difficult to move the organs inside. Number two, they want to get him off the ventilator as soon as possible and they can't remove it until they achieve closure. Infection is also an issue so the sooner they can get everything moved in and closed the better. More than likely, they won't be able to close it completely because his muscle is not going to be able to stretch far enough but they will be using a grafting technique to get it as closed as possible. Rick and I feel very good about our surgeons and we feel that they are making the very best decisions for our little man!
One other update, his VSD (hole in heart) is now considered small to moderate and there is no flow in or out of it which is a very good thing! Nothing is to be done about it yet, they are going to just keep monitoring it and hopefully they won't have to do anything about it!
Fin is so feisty and has so much courage... everybody hold a good thought for him tomorrow afternoon! Thanks again to everyone for all your loving support. We feel like everyone's arms are wrapped around us!
Love to everyone!! xoxoxoxo Daria & Rick
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