Thursday, May 27, 2010

Coming Home & Mommy-Daughter Date

Finally some good news...James gets to come home tomorrow! Keith put the docs in a headlock today until they cried Uncle and gave in. :-)

It's now been almost 10 days since surgery and his bowels are still not really "awake". This is on the longer side of the recovery timeline, but they aren't overly concerned about it yet. Since things aren't moving through much, he's still not getting any formula--just the nutrition thru his IV line. {The reason he was throwing up so much was because a huge volume of fluid/formula was just sitting stagnant in his stomach, making him nauseated.} He'll come home with extra IV fluids that we'll have to hook up for 4 hour periods, depending on the volume of output from his stomach tube. Even though he's not getting food directly into his stomach, he's been producing a large amount of fluid/mucous/bile from his stomach tube, so that is something we'll have to track to make sure he's not getting dehydrated. Eventually once his system calms down and things seem to be moving all the way through the intestines, we'll probably be able to start formula on a very slow drip. He hasn't had any fevers over the past few days, so he may or may not come home with IV antibiotics. His incisions are looking great and are already healing up very nicely. I made sure to take pictures of his tummy before surgery, so once he heals more I'll post the before/after pics!

I know we have a lot of "medical tinkering" ahead of us, but for now we're just so excited to get him home and to get re-settled into a somewhat normal routine around here.

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In more "normal life" news, Keith took the hospital day shift today, so I got to take Madeline on a special girls date to OMSI. The sand pit! Playdough! Dinosaurs! Puppet shows! The water toys! Face painting! By the end of the day she was a big, tired mess...mission accomplished! :-)


{These were really cool magnetic blocks called Magna Tiles. All sides are magnetic, so you could build really cool stuff. I bet Keith would have just as much fun with these as Maddie!}

{Hopefully this photo sums up Maddie's feelings about our date!}

2 comments:

Christine said...

Yay James! So excited for you guys to bring him back home. Praying for him all the time, and for stamina in the days ahead for mommy and daddy.

Looks like you had a great day with your girl. So fun! Jonathan would love all of that. Maybe in a few months? :) xoxo

Anonymous said...

You don't know me but Darlene goes to my church here in Ohio- Thank you so much for the beautiful pics! I was so encouraged to see how well James is growing! He looks so happy! Maddie is darling as well! Praying for you all and especially that the infection will clear quickly and you all can resume your happy lives in the comfort of your home!
the pics brought a smile to my face!