Surgery x2 Part 2

The day of surgery came. We were told that he would be in surgery around noon. We got to the hospital early and found an extremely pissed off baby. He had officially been off food since midnight the night before because of the surgery. We had a nurse that we had never had before and if we couldn't have our "regular" nurses, this one was amazing. She was very calm with Nicholas and funny with us. Nicholas was angry and screaming. A pacifier was not acceptable. He wanted food in his belly.

The nurse told us she had to place an IV line because the NICU didn't want the anesthesiologist to touch their PICC line. They had worked too hard to get that PICC in. She tried to place the IV in his hand and the line immediately collapsed. His hand was just too small. I had helped her hold him down while she placed the IV in his hand but when she said she was going to place the IV in his head, I had to back away. Mike and I switched spots and I held Emily. The IV was placed in his head and then we waited. And waited. And waited. The surgeon stopped by briefly with his resident and explained again what he was going to do and what to expect. He asked if we had any questions and was gone as soon as we said no.

Suddenly, at around 12:30, transport showed up to take Nicholas to surgery. Our nurse was furious that she hadn't been notified so she could have him ready. She busied herself getting him ready to move and we kissed Nicholas. Mike was going to walk down with him and my sister, Emily, Zachary, and I were going to go get some food from the cafeteria while we waited. We were told it would probably be a couple of hours and then he would return to his room. They didn't know if he would still be intubated when he came back up, so we would just have to wait and see.

My sister, Mike, Emily, Zachary and I all returned to Nicholas's room and waited for him to come back. Emily slept. Zachary played games on our phones. My sister, Mike, and I just waited. Our nurse stopped by a few times with updates (he's out of surgery!) but mostly we just waited. And suddenly he was there. Groggy but not intubated. Just a nasal cannula with oxygen. Pretty good. He now had a hole in his belly with a Mic-key button covering it. The button was covered with tape and the extension tube that we could eventually remove after every feeding was taped in with the button. The button is permanent while he has the g-tube. It is what keeps the stomach adhered to the abdominal wall and keeps the hole open so we can continue feeding him. 

The surgeon appeared and said that the surgery had gone very well. They placed the g-tube (on the opposite side of the abdomen than where the catheter from his shunt drains), completed the nissen, completed the circumcision and oh by the way, found a surprise. Ummmm. A surprise? That's a scary term coming from your newborn's surgeon. They had found an inguinal hernia while they were in his abdominal cavity and had gone ahead and repaired it. An inguinal hernia is a hole where the baby's testicles dropped that should have closed. Probably due to his prematurity, Nicholas's had remained open. This could cause issues because his intestines could drop into his testicles, twist, and he would be in for pretty major surgery. As it was, his testicles were quite large because the extra fluid draining from his ventricles was draining through the hole. Lucky the surgeon found it. If they would have found it after surgery and before discharge, he would have had to have a third surgery. If we were discharged and his intestines dropped, we could be looking at an emergency situation. 

Now we waited for Nicholas to get the all clear to start eating to see if he would tolerate his feeds via g-tube. We were getting closer to a discharge date as long as everything worked.