Nothing Goes as Planned

Well, we met with the pediatric surgeon on Tuesday regarding Aaron's hernia and surgery was scheduled for Friday, only 3 days away...

On Wednesday (08/26/09), only one day after meeting with the surgeon, we rushed Aaron to the ER because of his hernia! He was acting cranky and sleepy all day, which he usually does when he's backed up. He works so hard to go to the bathroom that he just gets tired and falls asleep, usually without taking much food. But he was so sleepy all day that day and hadn't taken anywhere close to his normal. He woke up around 6pm starving! We were so happy that he finally wanted to eat. And, he took his bottle pretty well, too. But then, it all came right back up. Almost projectile but not quite. This has happened before but not on a day that he wasn't taking much to begin with. Figuring he was backed up, we checked his diaper to see if he had done anything. There was no poo. But, his hernia was the worst we'd seen it since he was discharged back in July! Aaron was screaming and his hands were shaking. Nothing was making him feel better. We pressed on his tummy, tried to reduce the hernia, tried to help him go to the bathroom any way that we could, but nothing. It was like a big balloon filled to almost bursting. It was rock solid. Usually, I'm the one that wonders, "Is this it? Is this the time we have to rush to the ER?", Clayton suggests to wait awhile longer, and Aaron settles down and goes to the bathroom. This time, Clayton looked at me and said, "We need to go." So we packed some stuff and headed over to the ER. We were the only ones there and got in right away. Aaron had settled a bit in the car and probably passed some gas because the hernia was slightly better by the time we got into our room, around 8:20pm. It took 2 doctors to reduce the hernia on the left side, and it just kept trying to bulge out again. But pushing some in was better than nothing. They left the hydrocele on the right alone. In the meantime, they wanted some blood work and Aaron was stuck 4 times just to get 2 teeny vials of blood. Also, they wanted a urine sample to check his electrolytes since he was vomiting, so poor Aaron was catheterized. It was really sad to watch and he was miserable. They also took an abdominal xray (KUB = Kidney, Ureter, Bladder) just to make sure there were no blockages stopping him from going to the bathroom. After everything came back perfect, we fed Aaron a bottle and had to stay a bit to make sure he kept it all down. He was so exhausted he just passed out. Here he is sleeping with his hand all bandaged up. We've seen him go through a lot during his short life already but this was just so sad...

Aaron slept the whole rest of the time and 90 minutes after finishing eating, they discharged us from the ER. Oh, and Aaron weighed in at 6lbs 13.7oz.

We got home around 1am Thursday morning and prayed that Aaron can just make it through the day for his surgery on Friday. We also changed him over to formula to help pack on some pounds and to try and help him be less gassy. It all seemed to work. Aaron did very well yesterday. We got a phone call in the early evening from the hospital asking to be there by 11:30am on Friday because surgery is scheduled for 12:30pm.

Aaron stopped having formula at 4:15am and was having pedialyte until about 9:30am. Almost immediately we received a phone call from hospital seeing if we could come in earlier. The surgeon was done with her surgeries and wanted to get Aaron in right away. Great! The sooner they finish the earlier we can get home.

As soon as we got there and checked in, we were immediately brought back to pre-op. Everyone was waiting for little Aaron. They weighed him, took some medical history and dressed him up in a little (big for Aaron) surgical gown.
Anesthesia then came to talk to us. They were planning on doing a spinal block, which almost always works. The procedure should only take about 1 hour. After he wakes up and eats, we go home. Well, nothing ever goes as planned with Aaron. In the waiting room they had one of those monitors, like at the airport, with each patient assigned a number and the screen letting you know when they were in the room, what time surgery started/finished, etc. Aaron's surgery didn't start for an hour after anesthesia took him away. I knew something had to have not worked. In another hour, the procedure was done and the surgeon came out to talk to us. Apparently, Mr. Aaron was as feisty as usual. They tried to spinal block on him. They got right where they needed to and gave the right amount for his weight but someone wouldn't stop kicking! They decided to go with plan b, which was to use general anesthesia. They got him all set up and tried to intubate him, just in case, but he just would not let them! Aaron had been done with intubation for a long time and was not going back! He went into broncospasm and was given some steroids to help calm the muscles down so they could get the tube down, which they eventually did. They repaired his large hernia on the left and while exploring the hydrocele on the right, discovered that he also had a hernia there. Fortunately, the hernia was separate from the hydrocle which is pretty uncommon but made for an easier repair and drainage of the hydrocele.

The rest of the procedure went well and Aaron woke up fine and extubation went perfectly. By the time we were brought back to see him, he was awake and ready to start eating. We began with some sugar water to get him awake, which he totally wanted to bypass. He took some formula and went right to bed. They were avoiding giving him narcotics for pain relief so they've been alternating Tylenol and ibuprofen. Since he had to be put under general, hospital protocol is to keep all babies less than 50 weeks old (Aaron is 48 weeks) overnight for observation.

We were brought up to a room on the pediatric floor. Currently, I'm sitting in a sleeper rocking chair next to a very tired baby. He is eating very well. Not a whole lot at a feeding but getting there, and up every hour to make up the difference. He's got two tiny bandages on his lower abdomen. They closed the small incisions with surgi-strips so it'll make it easier to heal and with less of a scar than stitches. The surgeon will be back in the morning to check on him and we should be on our way home!

Wow, this was a long post, but so much has happened in just the past few days. If any lesson is learned, it's that Aaron likes things done on his terms. So, don't plan anything, because he will always surprise you. We've known this, but now so do his doctors.

Goodnight.