April 22, 2009

Here he is after surgery waiting to get off of the ventilator and get some dinner.

Demetri was in surgery for about one and a half hours. The surgeon came out and informed us that everything went well and that he could eat in about 2 hours and that they would take him back to the NICU to recover. They were able to do the surgery laproscopically instead of having to make a larger incision. The surgery nurse practitioner thought that if the procedure could be done laproscopically that he would be the smallest baby it has been performed on at Children's Mercy Hospital. It took about 30 minutes to get him settled, but when we got back to see him he was very upset. He looked like he was in pain and was still on a ventilator. Even more upsetting for us was that the only pain medicine that he had available to him was Tylenol, but mom soon remedied that with the help of the neonatologist.

He had a good night, but it did take until about midnight to get the doctors to take him off of the ventilator. He was doing great with his breathing, but they were dragging their feet due to the fear of having to reintubate him because it took anesthesia a long time and a special tool to get it done in the operating room. He slept like a baby the rest of the night, swaddled tightly. His morning labs were normal, except he is a little anemic and they are contemplating giving a blood transfusion. They will decide in the morning.

Today he was quite a little champ. He finally got his chance to eat at noon (just a little more than two hours after his surgery) and did great. He has taken a 10 ml bottle every 3 hours since then and has not had any reflux or vomiting (surgeon warned us that it is normal for him to vomit for 2 to 3 days). He seemed at ease and looks the best that he has since being admitted this time.

Here he is sleeping with daddy after taking his bottle.