Warrior Scar

Little Maxton now has his very own warrior scar. Surgery got underway around 10am. At about 11:30, the RN came out to tell us things were going well and they were in the process of finishing with the patch, then they would be closing up and coming to get us. So, about 12:40, they came out. ( I was a nervous wreck that last hour wondering what was taking sooo long!). Maxton's defect was "large". I asked the surgeon what organs were up and he kept saying "all of them". I plan to get more clarification on this, but regardless, they are all back down now. :-) He could not sew Maxton completely up, due to skin not stretching enough to allow a complete close. (basically since there hadn't been any organs in his tummy area, it was pretty small) His outer layer of skin is sewn up, but the more muscley skin underneath is still open... so Maxton now just has a real hernia (like what most people think of when they hear hernia). This will have to be fixed at some point, but not to be worried about for right now. He apparently did good during the surgery. The fellow (one of his doctors) told us that he did better than they expected. His oxygen is obviously back up to 100% and his nitric is at 19. His delta P is set at 29 and his MAP is at either 14.5 or 15 (it was fluctuating so I couldn't tell and didn't wanna ask while they were still cleaning up). He looks really good. His is swollen, but looks like a new man! The goal today is to keep his blood pressure mean above 50 and to keep him satting well. They are just going to let him rest right now. The only drips (other than food and stuff) that he is on is still the morphine and the versed. I anticipate that they will start a blood pressure med later today but it is good that they haven't yet. He mean was like 49-50 when I was back there. I think they were trying to give him a little time to see if he would get it up on his own during recovery. Obviously, the next 48-72 hours are critical. I am hopeful that Maxton will not decompensate (alot of CDH babies do). Please keep us in your thoughts. I cannot even begin to describe how greatful and thankful we are! We truly appreciate each and everyone of you..