Taking the Good With the Bad Again...

If there is such a thing as a degree in stress, I think Mason, Travis and I have all earned one! Mason was scheduled to have his belly closed today, but there was a surgery cancellation yesterday so they bumped him ahead. Mason went into surgery at 2:45 pm and did not come out until four nail-biting hours later. Needless to say we did not expect such a long surgery. The docs did not either. Long story short, they closed up Mason and then realized that he was not handling the closure well. Pulling all of that muscle together really put a lot of pressure on his little lungs. They had to "undo" a portion of it and insert a patch into his muscle to give him some relief. The skin was closed over this patch, making the closure complete.

Poor Mason did not breeze through this surgery like the last couple. He took a large step back on the vent. His pressures went from 19 to 28, oxygen from 21% to 40%, and rate from 15 to 52. His blood gases are looking good today so hopefully they can start the slow weaning process tomorrow. At this point, we don't think that Mason will be coming off the vent anytime soon. The process may take a couple of weeks. Mason also has a fever today and the docs are watching him closely. He is on drugs to keep him paralyzed for the next day or two to make sure he doesn't cause himself pain or irritate the incision site.

Thursday he is scheduled to get a feeding tube placed from his nose into his intestines to help his feeds. The docs are thinking he has some pretty severe reflux from his anatomy issues and that this will help him keep his feeds down. He is also going to have a study done on his kidneys, bladder and urinary tract because of some of his past issues.