Happy Again

Ty and I got a chance to relax in Grandma Nina's pool while Andrew was recovering.
Ty doesn't care much for actually swimming. He really likes to stay on the stairs and throw the toy torpedoes for others to gather.

Andrew did spend a few days fairly miserable after surgery. He wasn't allowed to eat or be tube fed until 5 days after surgery. He wasn't even interested in eating for that amount of time because he was just trying to sleep off the discomfort. This picture is from Sat 7/17. He was starting to be awake and grumpy by then.

We started feeding him by tube Sunday. What a difference! We started at 10 cc/hr, which is 2 tsp/hr. He had to prove he could tolerate that for 24 hours. Then they increased the rate by another 10 cc's every 6 hours until he got to 40/hr. That was enough for him to come home on Tues. By then he was also starting to want to eat by mouth. Now that we're home he eats anything and everything. He has completely given up his bottle since not having it in the hospital. Nothing wrong with that, I guess. It was a good way to get in extra calories by mouth, so I'll just have to tube feed that much until he starts eating more calories.

His wounds are still draining some and are red. I plan on trying to use oils to help lessen the scarring. I'm not sure if he'll think they're cool, or just be embarrassed by them when he's older. I hadn't realized until I was taking off steri-strips that they went through his belly-button for one of the holes! There's one more to the right that isn't shown in this picture. His pain has been lessening, and very managable since being home.

I'm not sure if it's being sore from surgery or just a growing up thing, but Andrew has also started walking EVERWHERE. No more crawling. It's still new to me to have him walk into the room or to walk when he wants to play with a toy across the room. It's great for him though. His newest trick is carrying things and talking while walking. Last night he was so proud of himself he did laps around Grandma Shell's living room for a lot of the evening.
We have a follow-up appointment with Dr. Barnhart next Friday. The results from the nissen seems to be optimal. I haven't noticed reflux symptoms. Andrew did gag and heave the first few days in the hospital, but since getting food again hasn't had any episodes.

As for the stricture it's just a wait-and-see deal. He's been able to eat great since we got home. Today he gagged up twice, but it may just be that he was shoving too much in his mouth too fast.

It's great to be home, and great to see Andrew doing so well. It was so hard to watch him go through surgery and the first few days after. I would sit in the rocking chair and cry for him. We trusted our answer from the Lord that this is what he needed next. Now that I can see that Andrew's healing and so happy again, I'm so glad that we made this choice. Thank you so much for the support and help from all of you.

Fundoplication Surgery

Well, after a lot of thought, research, discussion, and prayer, Ryan and I felt like it was time to go ahead with fundoplication surgery for Andrew. It's a surgery to stop reflux, where they wrap the upper part of the stomach around the esophagus, and then sew it back to the stomach.
We had known for a long time that this was a possibility because Andrew has such severe reflux, but were trying to avoid it. Now that he's had such problems with his stricture and his reflux has not improved as much as we had hoped, the surgeon recommended that we do the surgery to stop reflux from irritating the stricture.
We went in for the surgery Tuesday. Start time was expected to be 12:30 and it was going to be about a 3 hour surgery. Well, he didn't end up going in until 2:15 or so. Then they had a much harder time than they anticipated. The plan was to do the surgery with laparoscopy (5 little holes instead of an incision). Just after 8 pm the surgeon finally came out of the OR. We'd had updates throughout surgery, so we knew that Andrew was ok, but that things were not going as smooth as they had hoped.
They ended up making an incision after several hours of trying to do the surgery with the laparoscopy. They also ended up moving Andrew's G-tube sight. Which overall means they closed the old one and made a new one. Most of Andrew's small stomach was used for the surgery, so we'll have to stretch his stomach again. Overall he's doing fine. He's has decent pain control, and has been stable and healing fine. He is not interested in doing anything beyond being held and has slept 98% of the last 2 days, so far. The pain should decrease from here though. He has avoided coughing or clearing his throat at all, and did run a high fever Tues night, but an x-ray cleared him of any infection worry.
He got a PICC line placed today. Which is like a long IV that goes from the inside of the elbow, through the vein and ends just before entering the heart. He'll get IV nutrition, and all his medication through that until Sunday. Then he'll finally be able to start having G-tube feeds. He'll be starting all over, like he did in the NICU last year. They will start at a very slow rate, and use drip feedings to avoid having pressure build-up in his stomach. Then slowly increase the rate. When he gets to the full volume of feedings and tolerates it, then he can come home. The magic number is 36 cc's/hr, I think. That's just over 7 tsp/hr on a continuous feeding. We'll work on the rest at home.It's hard to see with all the tape, but you can probably tell what's what. The top bandage is the old G-tube site. The line below the tube is the incision site. The rest are the little holes used for laparoscopy. And, of course, the new tube. He'll have to have the long tube until the new site heals. This tube doesn't have a balloon on the inside because his stomach is so small again, that a balloon would possibly block to exit from the stomach to the intestine. Instead there is a plastic disc on the inside. I'm not sure how they get it in, or how they'll get it out, but that's how it was described to me. Ryan and Ty have been staying at my parents at night and visiting the hospital in the day. I stayed with Andrew the last two nights. Tonight Ryan and I will switch, and I'll stay with Ty while Ryan is with Andrew at the hospital. Man how we love those hospital pull-out couch beds! At least we get to stay with him.

Summer Fun

Like father like son. Ryan and Ty waiting candy at the Parade.
The boys at the 4th of July family party.

Ty loves getting into the dirt!

Andrew is walking now! He's been really close for a while. He started just taking a step or so, then three, then eight, and now he's anywhere he wants to be. Already he's getting pretty fast too! He really likes the independence.

We got Ty this little loader last week just for fun, and he loves it so much he even sleeps with it! He scoops anything he can find all day long. Andrew is a little jealous, but steals a turn when Ty is distracted. Usually we give Drew a dump truck and they play together with them.