Home Sweet Home

This morning I woke up in my own bed!!!  Coming home yesterday was a pretty emotional experience for both of us.  The past month and a half really took a toll on us.  Reflecting back on it, it’s hard to believe what we’ve endured since finding out about Lucy’s gastroschisis in January.  Sometimes it doesn’t really hit you until you have a moment to breathe.  Even though our journey isn’t over, a big part of it is past us.  We’re so close!  

Reunited with one very happy kitty

Lucy is still doing great!  There’s only a little bit of bowel left in the silo, and they expect everything to be inside within the next couple of days.  Then the surgeon will decide on whether to do surgery or the sutureless closure to close the hole.  It’s a case-by-case decision that depends on how the intestine falls back into the body.  We’re really hoping the sutureless closure works out.  

The silo from today.  Getting so close!

After everything is inside, they’ll be able to remove her breathing tube.  They actually tried taking it out today for about an hour, but she didn’t take enough breaths on her own so they intubated her again.  They said not to be worried about it because they were just trying to see if they could remove the tube a little earlier, but they’re not surprised that she’s not quite ready to breathe on her own yet.  Her lungs are mature but the bowel going into her abdomen is placing a lot of pressure on her diaphragm.  She’s also pretty sedated from the pain medication.  They said that she should have no trouble breathing on her own once everything is inside.  It’s really hard seeing her hooked up to the breathing tube because it looks so uncomfortable and she can’t cry, so I’ll be SO happy once it gets removed. 

They expect that everything will be in and the breathing tube will be out by the end of this week.  Then the next step is to start oral feeds.  They’ll start with a very small amount of milk (~ 1 cc) to see if her stomach can tolerate it.  Then they’ll gradually increase the amount of milk and wait for poop.  Poop means that the intestines are functioning (i.e., pushing things through).  Right now she’s passing meconium every day (pre-poop that was in her intestines while she was in the womb), which is a good sign that there’s no blockage in the intestine.  But it doesn’t mean that the intestines are functioning.  There’s no way to tell whether they’re functioning until they fall back inside and we try to send food through them.

 

So for now we continue the waiting game, but we should have more news by the end of the week.  So far everything is going textbook and we haven’t encountered any big setbacks or curve balls.  Lucy is so strong and determined and she’s making her way through this like the little warrior that she is.  :) 

Lucy likes to have her head rubbed.  Since she was breech I used to rub her head a lot when I was pregnant.

Miss Cutie Patootie