Post-op Update

Well I'm just now getting around to updating.. things have been busy.

Right after I posted that last update Landon spiked a 103 degree fever, and that was with Tylenol. Then his heartrate climbed into the 200's and was staying there. I, of course, was terrified that he was septic, but they gave him some Motrin and his heartrate went down along with the fever. They assured me that although it is unusal to spike a fever that high following surgery, the fact that his heartrate dropped down along with the fever was a good sign. Fortunately the fever didn't return and that was the end of that scare.

He stooled for the first time 2 days earlier than expected. There was some gas that lingered in his small intestine, though, and so on day 5 post-op he was able to drink Pedialyte. Day 6 he started taking formula again, and day 7 we were discharged. We stayed in Cincinnati and explored for 2 more days, and then day 9 we went home. It was earlier than expected, and we made it home in time for Carson's birthday on the 23rd.

Unfortunately, the 23rd turned out to be more eventful than I would have liked. Landon started vomitting violently and having awful diarrhea the consistency of water. We were afraid of enterocolitis and couldn't irrigate him that soon after surgery and so we had no choice but to bring him back to Cincinnati. My dad went with me so that John could stay here and give the other boys a halfway normal Christmas. When we got there, everything was a mess. They hadn't put through the orders for Landon to be admitted like we had discussed so we ended up waiting in the ER waiting room for 4 hours. This was while Landon was getting severely dehydrated, not to mention coughed and sneezed all over by tons of kids with the flu, RSV, and God knows what.

Finally they saw him in the ER and got him admitted. As I expected, getting the IV in was horrible because he had gotten so dehydrated. They had to dig, and dig, and dig.. at least 10 different times. It was a horrible thing to watch just wishing they could do it to me instead.

They did a full work-up, labs, x-rays, stool culture, and everything was fine and so we were able to leave Christmas eve night. We later found out that the stool cultire came back indeterminent for c-diff and so they wanted to treat him with Flagyl as a precaution, otherwise assuming it was just a nasty GI bug.

A few days later, the same thing started all over again with the violent vomitting and diarrhea. Another hospitalization resulted, and everything looked fine besides his electrolyte balance being off from being dehydrated. The stool culture was repeated, and this time negative for c-diff which meant either he never had it or it cleared up extremely fast.

We went back home, and he then he would be fine for about 2 days and then vomit again. The diarrhea continued for around 10 days before it finally cleared up. The vomitting has only recently resolved. They are hypothesizing that due to the Hirschsprung's and a recent surgery on his intestines he just hung on to a GI bug way worse than a typical baby would. I was worried that he lost nearly 2 lbs. between the surgery and illness, but in only a week he has gained a pound of it back and so I'm sure a month from now there will be no evidence that any of this ever happened.

We go back next Friday for a follow-up and to find out if we have to start doing dilations. If you don't know what those are, I'll give you a hint: it is what it sounds like. Dilating his... you know.. the area he had surgery on. It won't be pleasant. I left out of this story a huge piece regarding what ended up happening with Endocrine in Cincinnati for his MEN-2 testing, it was a huge battle and a long story. I will add that sometime later just to provide some entertainment. I hope that everyone had a great Christmas and New Years.