Sept. 10th, 2012

Blake reached 2 pounds today! He is slowly but surely getting bigger. That's the big news of the day.

I haven't written anything since the surgery because to be honest, I wasn't quite sure what to write. I knew he was stable, I knew he was getting pain meds and I knew he was recovering. But other than that, all the small details I picked up when the doctor's talk in their lingo weren't anything of major importance. Adjusting his ventilator here and there or doing basic labs and blood tests. Nothing too crazy.

He did hit a little bump (literally) the other day though. Nothing life threatening or vital, just figuratively a little bump but physically a big bump. The other night they needed to give him a blood transfusion. But my poor buddy had IVs, wires or tubes from every limb and the only place they could get to for the transfusion was in his scalp. Well, the blood infiltrated into his tissue which resulted in a HUGE bump on his scalp. The night nurse called me in the morning to give me a heads up and not worry when I came in the next day. But even with the warning I was still shocked. I was thinking it would be a little blood blister. I was not expecting a bump half the size of his little head. They said its common when doing an IV or blood transfusion in that spot. It may take a few weeks for the swelling to go down. His body will naturally break down the blood in the tissue and all will be well. In fact, the swelling has gone down quite a bit. The doctor told me it would heal like a bruise. It's kind of purple in color and will probably go through the yellow and blue phases before it goes away completely. So even though it looks pretty bad, it really isn't. A little knot on his head is the least of our worries.

I asked the doctor about what the timeline looks like for when they will put his stoma (intestines) back inside his belly. He said we need to wait at least 6 weeks. And if all is going well and he is getting his nutrients from my breast milk then they will wait as long as they can so that he can get bigger. If he has problems or isn't getting the nutrients he needs, then they will put it back to together sooner. Sounds backwards right? Well, the reason for this is because only the intestines above the stoma are able to digest the nutrients. Luckily, his stoma is low so he has the majority of his intestines to work with in the meantime. If he wasn't absorbing enough nutrients, they would want to put the intestines back together so he can use all his intestines and have a better chance at absorbing what he needs. Sorry if that doesn't make sense or is confusing. The doctors always explain things so easily and when I go back to repeat them, I make a mess of the explanation. It makes sense in my head but its always harder for me to actually voice it.

Overall, Blake is doing just what he needs to be doing. Resting and recovering. No news is always good news in my eyes.