Post Op

Well, Allison came out of surgery this afternoon. Doctors told us it all went very well. They removed 8cm of her intestine but she only had one large stricture. Over the next couple weeks they will be looking for signs of leakage or scarring where they connected the healthy ends of the bowels together but they do not see signs of any other strictures so we should be good there. She will probably spend a couple weeks recuperating from the surgery and then a couple weeks getting back to full feeds so it could be another month before she comes home, but this was a big step in the right direction.

Here is her post-op back in her room

The good, the bad, and the hopeful

Well it started as a good weekend. Last Saturday Chrissy and Eddie spent the day at the hospital with Allison. Mammy (Eddie's mom) even stopped by to see her briefly. They got to hold and play with her a bit and even gave her another bath. Then she got dressed in a cute little strawberry nightgown with matching boots and hat. Some pictures below of the day and then the story continues...

No pictures, please! I need my rest

Cute little strawberry outfit

Mommy's got me

Strawberry giving mommy a raspberry

Just checking out the world

The next day Eddie went to cousin Ashley's 2nd birthday party while Chrissy's friends threw her a baby shower at our house. Lots of people came with wonderful food and presents and Husky decorations. A few stayed late to clean up and have a drink and talk. Once everyone was gone though, things took a turn for the worse.

The doctors at Evergreen Hospital called and said Allison had troubles Saturday night and Sunday. After consulting with the doctors at Swedish they determined she needed to have some tests done to see if any damage occurred from the NEC she had back in February. So they wanted to transfer her to Swedish on First Hill in the morning.

She was moved via ambulance and Chrissy followed. Eddie was having stitches removed from a recent surgery and had to meet them down there. Once there they got her settled in she was prepped for her test. If you don't want to know all the details you can skip ahead but here is what the problem is. NEC has a possible side effect of causing strictures or scarring in the intestines. If the strictures are large enough they can block passage of the waste she produces and can back up. In order to see if there are strictures they have to perform a barium contrast test. Basically a barium liquid is deposited up her bum and they take a series of x-rays to watch where it goes. The contrast in the x-ray will show the size and shape of her bowels to see if it flows uninterrupted or if there are points where it narrows. Those would be strictures and would have to be removed. 

Back to Allison. Her test showed at least one stricture, large enough that the doctor estimates it closed off about 90-95% of her flow. There is another point wich is also a possible stricture but the test was inconclusive. However they will definitely have to have surgery for the first and will be able to examine the second more closely while they are in there to determine what to do about it.

So now on to the surgery. What they will be doing is cutting out the section of intestine where the stricture is and sewing the two healthy ends together. There are possibilities of leakage where they are connected or more scarring to occur while its healing as side effects. Also if there is a second stricture they might remove that at the same time or wait to do the same surgery again later when she is recovered some. This will be whatever the doctors determine is the best course while they are operating. The procedure is happening tomorrow, Mar 28th at 7:30 am and should last a couple hours. We are both hopeful that this will take care of all the problems she has been going through and will make her much more comfortable in the end. We are also praying this will be the only surgery she needs and is as quick and painless as possible. I understand we have people as far north as Canada praying for us and we appreciate it all including all the notes, texts, facebook messages, cards, carrier pigeons, skywriting, and subliminal messages that have been sent our way. It's helpful in these times to know what great family and friends we have by our side. We will probably call immediate family after we know the outcome and maybe a quick post on facebook. I will update the blog later tomorrow hopefully.

Just some interesting Allison info: Today, March 27th was Allison's original delivery date. So she is full term today. Also tonight she weighed in at 6lbs 2oz. What a big, strong girl! She is SOOO going to kick this NEC's ass!

Allison's setback

It was time for a new post and there have been some updates that have not been so good. As mentioned before, Allison's GERD was causing some issues and there were different paths it could take. Well, they ended up making a decision which had some consequences. They moved her feeding tube past her stomach and into her small intestines. This will keep her from bringing food back up and give her a chance to rest her stomach and esophagus which was causing her pain. The consequence is that she will stay like this for her feedings for the next two weeks with a minimum of a week after for observation. So she is in the hospital for the long haul.

A side problem came up in just the last day or so. Unfortunately some of the milk she brought back up had bacteria from her stomach in it which then got into her lungs. She acquired an infection in her lungs and the x-rays are showing some haziness. They don't know exactly what kind of infection but she is being treated with anti-biotics. So now she has her breathing tube back and an I-V reinserted. We are just looking forward to the day she can come home...

Allison's Trials

Its about time for another feline follow up. My sister Allison is still going through some issues at the hospital. She has been having troubles feeding and keeping her food down. Its a fairly common problem among preemies called GERD. The trouble is that if her feedings are causing her pain, then she might develop an aversion to feedings. Right now there are so many possibilities of what can happen and what might help, its too many to describe. Suffice it to say, they will be watching her closely. Chrissy might start working form the hospital in order to give Allison more "mommy-breast" time. She has however been doing other things. She is up to 5lbs 6 oz. and she is completely off her breathing tubes. Really the only hold up at this point is her feeds. Once she can bottle feed or they have some other method to work with they can bring her home. Until then, she will be staying at the hospital. Here are some pics from the latest visits.

Bath Time!

New PJs!

I think Eddie is loosing it a bit

So I know Eddie and Chrissy are looking forward to brining Baby Allison home, but I think the catnip is going to Eddie's head.

Today he was playing around with the new baby stroller and other things they got at the baby shower today. (I will post about the shower later) Anyway there was a large picture that was printed up of Allison for the shower and Eddie was having a little wishful fun...

A Day of Firsts

So my sister Allison had quite the interesting day on Saturday. I know I said it was a day of Firsts, but the day before was a day of Seconds, as in she turned 2 months old last Friday. On Saturday Eddie and Chrissy went to the hospital to make sure we got the next series of pictures with her teddy bear so we can see how she has grown.

Here is last months pic...

So that day Allison got her mom and dad to visit along with her mammy who was so excited to get to see her outside her isolette for the first time. She was even there long enough to get to hold her a little.

Later that night she got another first. While her mom stayed to watch her, Eddie went out to get dinner for them both. When he returned with the food the police were at all the entrances and wouldn't let anyone but employees go in. They wouldn't say what the problem was but when Eddie called Chrissy, a nurse told her someone had called in a bomb threat to the hospital. This was a first for all of them. After about 40 mins outside they finally let everyone back in but it was a bit scary.

But the night ended well with Allison's first bath. She was definitely not too sure what to think of the whole experience but once she was dried off and back in her PJs under her bundles of blankets, everything was good.