Mike has been looking forward to watching college football with the babies since before they were born. Today, he was finally able to do that, at least with one baby! (However, we wanted to make it in to the hospital to see James before the football traffic for this evening's Carolina game. So, we didn't watch the whole OSU game before going in, but had it recording. This proved to be a mistake, as no fewer than three people told us the outcome of the game! Oh well!)Mike also decked out Matthew's stroller with UNC and LSU flags. We would have fit in with the people tailgating on the top floor of the hospital parking garage.
Matthew now weighs eight pounds. Yay! And before his surgery, James was nine pounds and one ounce. Big boys! (We expect James will have his usual fluid retention after the surgery, and indeed, he posted a fairly big weight gain last night.)
James is recovering fairly well from the surgery. His vital signs have been stable, except for two scary episodes (one around 4 AM last night and one while we were there today) when his respirator tube got clogged with secretions. They were able to fix it quickly, but it was rather terrifying to see his oxygen saturations dip into the teens -- for comparison, these are supposed to be close to 100%, and the monitor alarms if they go below about 85%. This doesn't have any lasting effect for James, but perhaps a few more grey hairs for his mom and dad! He's been having some pain, which is not surprising given how extensive the surgery was, so he's still on a decent dose of fentenyl to control it. He'll probably be on the ventilator for a little while longer so they can continue to give the pain relief. He also got another blood transfusion to help keep his hematocrit up.
Yesterday was a really hard day for us, and I'm still feeling sad about the outcome of the surgery. It just feels so big and so permanent for him to lose that much of his bowel. At first I was second-guessing the surgeon, wondering if something could have been done differently to save some more of James's colon. But Mike pointed out that with a five-hour surgery, the surgeon was probably being pretty careful and not just cutting things out without a good reason. Multiple doctors have told us that people can live perfectly normal lives without their colons (and Mike noted that James's risk for colon cancer is now greatly reduced!), but I just wish that things didn't have to be so hard for James. He's such a nice baby; he doesn't deserve all of this trouble.
<--Franklin Street on the day of the UNC-Citadel football game. (UNC won).
3 comments:
He's a wonderful little boy, Mel. He doesn't deserve this. Maybe now this will give him a chance to stabilize so he can go home and get on with his life. He has so much ahead of him. Jim and I are thinking of you two and sending you our best. You are amazingly strong!
Charlotte really likes these pictures. Her comment on the first one was, "Matthew is doing a letter!" I asked her, 'What letter?' She said, "O!" (She's talking about sign language fingerspelling, something she's lately been having fun with). Little did you know how gifted Mattie was. :)
Very glad to hear that James (and both of you) are hangin' tough.
Hi Melanie,
I am so moved and inspired by all of you. You have a beautiful, wonderful family. I can't wait til you have everyone home and you're chasing the little guys around the house while they're into their mischief. I am sending you good vibes and warm wishes.
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