Surgery #2

Happy Wednsday All! 

I held off on posting this week bcause I wasnt sure if Riley would end up having the surgery today after she caught a cold.  Yet again, another fun filled week... 

Last week, we brought Riley home on Monday.  Chase came home from daycare that day with the stomach flu and we had a rough first night taking care of him.  Also, Riley started throwing up every 2 hours because of mucus in her stomach after the irritation of having her NJ tube put back in. 

Tuesday rolled around and Chase, Riley and I had a great day at home as I started to come down with a cold.  Wednesday brought the brunt of my head cold as well as Abigail to our house visiting from San Francisco.  Chase came home that night and the stomach flu came back with a fury.  I think Brian and I did more laundry last week than we ever want to remember.  Thursday and Friday were spent at home with Riley and Chase.  It was great getting a feel for how to handle both kids as well as Riley's meds, feeds, and oxygen.  

We were so lucky to be able to spend Easter together as a family.  Chase got an Easter basket from the Easter bunny complete with bubbles which of course we had to use that morning.  We all had a great time at church and then it was off to Auntie Mary's for Easter dinner with the Fraser clan.  Oh what a great day it was!

Riley and I returned to Boston on Monday and joined 10E again.  Everyone was so excited to see Riley and couldn't believe how big she had gotten in a week.  She weighed in at 4.080kg which translates to about 9 pounds!!!  Riley had come down with a cold on Sunday night and everyone was skeptical as to whether we would be able to do surgery.  Thankfully the cold did not affect her lungs at all and we got the go ahead last night.

Riley went in for surgery at around 10:30 this morning.  The nurse who we met in pre-op called her a boy and to make sure at no one else made that mistake again, she came over with a beautiful purple blanket for Riley made by someone for Project Linus (www.projectlinus.org).  Another nurse loves to coordinate outfits and also brought us a little purple hat for her as well.  She was definitely styling for surgery (Auntie Stephie would be proud).

During the surgery I went to go pump (I know, TMI) and I heard a knock at the door.  I let them know someone was in the room and they said "Mrs. Coombs?".  I opened the door to see our surgeon standing there after an hour into a 4-6 hour surgery.  After he started surgery, he found that Riley had a condition called pyloric stenosis.  It is a condition that happens in kids from 4 weeks to a few months old where the valve between the stomach and the small intestine has extra muscle mass around it causing it to go from an open valve to a mostly closed valve.  Food is unable to pass through and it leads to vomiting.  Figuring that this might be the root of Riley's issues, we decided to not do the nissen, and instead to fix the pyloric stenosis and see if that helps solve Riley's issues.  We also went ahead and continued with the plan to put the G-tube in to make it easier to give Riley meds and supplemental feedings.

Riley is back in the ICU now for the night and we should be able to go back to the floor by tomorrow.  We will update on her status tomorrow!