April 8, 2011....Ethan is 3 months old! Unfortunately we don't get to do what most parents do on this day and get a professional photoshoot done. We anxiously wait all day for Ethan to go in for surgery.
We were told that he was on the Emergency Surgery list which means he'll get fit in when there is enough time to perform the surgery. We will be posting a few videos about the wait, but basically the days went like this - you're going, you're not going, you're going, you're not going....and finally you're going.
An anesthesiologist had spoken to me earlier that day about the benefits of Ethan getting an epidural for pain management afterwards, I was leery at first, but after hearing the details and speaking with Dale we had decided that would be the best option. Then when we spoke to the anesthesiologist who was actually involved in the surgery she said she wouldn't be putting in the epidural because it was too late in the day....while we appreciated the honesty in her knowing her limits, we were also quite disappointed because it was yet another thing that wasn't going as we suspected.
The nurse came out after Ethan had been in for a while to let us know that he was sedated and intubated. She also wanted to let us know that he had an IV in his head so we weren't shocked when we saw him. She said they had tried all of his limbs before resorting to the head IV. She also said, "He sure is vigorous!" Just like our little guy, putting up a fight! I'm glad he gave those nurses and docs a run for their money.
She gave us another update when Dr Kaijzer was closing. She said the surgery went well and that he would be out to give us the details after everything was done.
Dr Kaijzer came out a while later and told us that the surgery was a success and that he was being cautiously optimistic, because unfortunately this can happen again. He had to take out the part of Ethan's small intestine where they had done the original repair because there was a stricture (narrowing) there due to scar tissue. He repaired it differently this time by attaching the intestines side-by-side, rather than end-to-end, if that makes sense? (hard to describe in words without a diagram)...but doing ti this way alleviated taking out a large section of bowel due to the size difference of the pieces being reattached. This time he used staples instead of stitches. And one of the things I was worried about came true....there were several adhesions that needed to be removed.
Adhesions occur when any surgery is done because things have been disturbed. it's basically scars that form and make the bowel stick to itself, to the abdominal wall, the fat that surrounds the bowel....and the adhesions can cause pain, blockages, or do nothing. There is no predicting what will happen. And by removing the adhesions this could cause more to occur...kind of a catch 22.
I'm trying to be strong and positive about all of this, but its so hard. It's not fair that Ethan has to suffer like this. It's hard not to be selfish and self-pitying in thinking why did this have to happen to us? It's tiresome to hear that there is a great plan for us, that we wouldn't be given more than we can handle, blah,blah,blah....all we want is normal. I don't think that is too much to ask for. We would feel blessed just for Ethan to have a pain-free existence and a real shot at having a normal life.
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