Not Much News

The upper GI did not show any obstructions, but the barium was very, very slow to go through. James is still putting out the barium into his ostomy bag and it is almost 24 hours since they put it into him. We are hoping to speak to the doctor this afternoon to find out more details.

UPDATED 10:30 PM: There's still not much news; they're waiting for the final report from radiology and surgery, but the NICU doctor doesn't think there are any other strictures or obstructions. So the plan is that once the barium has cleared out of his system, they'll start feeding him again, at a relatively low level (probably 5 ml), which hopefully he'll be able to tolerate until the surgery. The NICU doctor wants them to do the surgery in two weeks (six weeks from the original surgery), and the surgeons would prefer to wait a bit longer, so we'll see where they end up. The reason for doing it earlier is because the IV fluid feeding is putting stress on his liver, so doing the surgery earlier means his liver will be in better shape to handle it. The reason for waiting is that if his intestines have a longer time to heal from the first surgery, it's easier to do the reattachment.

James was unhappy this morning; his nurse said he was inconsolable and fussy and generally not like his normal self. (Probably he was uncomfortable from trying to move the barium through his intestines.) When we went in this afternoon, one of the volunteer cuddlers was holding him, and he was sleeping peacefully and sucking on his pacifier. Thank goodness! I held him for a while, and he was pretty calm, with just a couple little bouts of crying. Mom and I went in this evening, and the nurse said he'd been fussy since she'd been there, and he'd just gotten settled. Mom held him for quite a while, and he was perfectly happy sleeping in her arms.