Today has been a horrible day. This morning at 10:55 Colton was taken to the operating room for brain surgery to place his shunt. My family and I decided to go downstairs for a bite to eat and to calm my nerves. I took the pager the hospital gives you with me, in case they need you and you aren't in the waiting room. As soon as I finished eating, the pager went off, I knew something was wrong, this surgery was suppose to take at least an hour and it had only been about 10 minutes. I literally ran back upstairs to the OR waiting room. The lady at the front desk sent me to a small consult room. I sat there, alone, waiting for the doctor, horrible thoughts flashing in my head. Eventually the neurosurgeon and anesthesiologist came in the room. From where I was sitting their hands were at eye level, one set was clasped shut, the other set trembling. This was bad. The surgery had been unsuccessful, Colton had flat-lined on the table, they had to fight hard to bring him back. They suspected a reaction to the anesthesia. He is back in the NICU now, shunt less and resting on the vent. My heart is still pounding from the scare, but I'm thanking God the news wasn't worse.
March 12, 2008
Colton is doing better today. He self extubated himself this morning (he was on the vent due to his surgery attempt yesterday). He did fine after he pulled out the tube so they left him off the vent. He is doing good right now. He weighs 5 pounds 2 ounces.
March 17, 2008
As some of you may know, today, March 17, 2008, is Colton's due date. It is amazing to think that his actual age is almost 4 months old now. It has been a long hard road but things are going great and along the way we have been blessed with each and every one of you to be by our sides with tremendous amounts of love and support. We couldn't have done it without you. Colton has eye surgery this morning... I do not have an exact time but I am heading up there around 8. The eye doctor feels that his eyes are getting better and this laser surgery will be much less strenuous on him than the last one. Hopefully he will handle it well. The only thing we have heard about the shunt is that they are probably going to wait until he is much bigger before they even try again. If that is what they decide, he will go home before the surgery. No decision has been made about the hernia either. I think Colton really scared the surgeons when they were attempting to prep him for surgery last week. He is taking a bottle but not yet up to the amount of food he was before the surgery attempt... we will get there soon. Tonight his length was 16 inches and he weighed 5 pounds 7 ounces, a lot of that is fluid though so we should expect him to loose a few ounces in the next week or so. I will update you all after his eye surgery. Keep him in your prayers... they have done wonders! Happy Due Date to Colton and Happy St. Patrick's Day to the rest of you!
March 18, 2008
Colton is going to need a more serious form of eye surgery on Friday... his retina has partially detached in one eye and they need to operate to keep his chances up for semi-normal vision. The other eye is doing pretty good for now. For this surgery he will actually have to be taken down to the OR. I have not been given a time yet. He is recovering well from the surgery yesterday. He did not have to be put on the ventilator during the surgery so that says a lot for his lungs. Other than that, things are going good. The nurse and I went over a rather large checklist last night about all the stuff I need to know before Colton can go home. As far as I know the plan is to get his eye surgery taken care of on Monday and then get him ready to go home the next week. That is if they decide to put his shunt and hernia surgery off until he gets bigger which is the plan right now. He would go home and have to come back to the PICU at about 6 months corrected age. Now that Colton's due date has passed I should explain what corrected age is... this is the age he would be had he been born on his due date... this age gives you a better idea of where these preemies should be developmentally. For example Colton's corrected age now is 1 day old. His actual age is called just that, his actual age is almost 4 months now. Hope everyone has a wonderful day!
Next: Splish Splash
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