No blockage!

Saturday, December 20, evening

Faith did very well in surgery. Dr. Partrick said afterwards that there was actually no blockage. They took the intestine out and looked it over, and it was still pretty matted and had a peel on it still. He said they fixed some adhesions (places where loops of bowel were stuck together), and they saw that at the place where the contrast study had shown blockage, her bowel was pretty dilated, and then got significantly smaller.

He also said they took her appendix out, which is actually somewhat of a relief, because it would potentially pose an issue down the road if she had her appendix and ended up with appendicitis, because it wouldn't be where it was supposed to be, so for one it would be harder to diagnose, and secondly, it would be harder for a doctor to find it to remove it. Then he said they put a catheter in where they took the appendix out, and flushed water through in both directions, and it went all the way, both ways.

He said they flushed a lot of meconium plugs out, which could have caused some of her issues... but really all of those things probably were factors. I had wondered about the meconium, because none of the "meconium" that she passed earlier looked like any meconium I'd ever seen... it wasn't that dark, sticky, tar-like stuff you expect, but was actually more mucous-y, green, and almost gelatinous. I guess that was a question I should have asked a month ago when I first wondered it, although it wouldn't necessarily have mattered, even if they knew a month ago that this would happen, because they wouldn't have done another surgery right away anyway. They like to give the bowel at least 4 weeks to sort of separate, for the adhesions and the peel to dissolve away and the loops of intestine to separate how they are supposed to be.

Last night Faith and I had some really good skin-to-skin cuddle time to hold us over until she recovers from this surgery and we can hold her again. I pumped for about 1/2 hour before hand, and then when she rooted around and wanted to latch on, I let her. One of the lactation nurses said the other day that she didn't think it was a good idea, but I sort of wonder what kind of certification she has, and if she actually paid attention in the class to get certified... I guess I feel like if I pump really well, so nothing is coming out with the pump anymore, then even if her latch was good enough to get a little bit out, I would know if she was getting too much, because I would see her swallow. Anyway, it was very nice. Her latch needs some work, but we'll worry about that a little later, when she's closer to feeds. She knows enough to know that something is supposed to come out though, because she got mad at me that they were "broken". Then we fell asleep in the chair, and stayed there until around 2 AM.

Well, that is about all for tonight... Time to get some sleep!

Here are a few post-op pics:

Just back from surgery, right after extubation

Resting comfortably, with the help of some pain meds...