The waiting game

After a day of some misbehaving, we are still at Westmead. Little man has been having some bradycardias and desats (rapid drop in heart rate and oxygen levels). They played around with his respiratory support, morphine levels and antibiotics, administering another as his temperature had dropped and wasn't coming back up. Now the little man is on 4 or 5 antibiotics (I've lost count), and morphine. His sugars had also dropped so they were boosting him with some, and have ended up giving him a dose of a hormone that produces sugars, Hydrocortisone I believe. This has settled down his sugars. It's all a fine balancing act of TPN, fluids, lipids and so on...on top of all the medication and sedation.

Jensen wasn't letting anyone touch him, change his nappy, and in particular touch his tummy. For this reason the doctors started talking about more surgery. Not again! He wasn't looking very happy or well and it was something we were hoping wouldn't have to be done. The surgeons seemed happy with the X-ray, and could just see some old poo that needed to come out which then all the trapped air would follow, but the doctors and nurses still weren't happy, so the head surgeon who did the operation came to visit. The only reason he said he would opt for more surgery would be if there was a perforation in his bowel, or some dead gut....both of which Jensen was showing no signs of having. So phew! No more surgery.....

He's been a bit groggy, as you'd expect after surgery (especially when you only weigh just over a kilo), and has been a bit cranky. He would feel the little cut he has and essentially his bowels have been moved and manipulated by adult fingers so I can imagine would be a bit unhappy. The professor says they are a bit irritable and haemorrhaged, which is normal after this surgery and now they have been put back into place, should repair themselves nicely, but just need some time to recover. It hadn't even been 48 hours since surgery. He needs to get this poo out....and then hopefully he'll feel a whole lot better, and we can all get ourselves back to the comfort of Royal North Shore.

It's not very nice here. It's certainly not a few months old like RNS. It doesn't feel as clean and hygienic here (although I'm sure it is) and it definitely feels like a hospital. They can take up to 29 babies here in Intensive Care, High Dependency, and Isolation. All babies here are waiting for, or have had surgery, some are very sick, dying, or deformed, so you can imagine the atmosphere here is not always nice. It's much smaller and much busier too. Babies are right close to each other and there is a lot going on. There is room enough to sit beside Jensen, but only for one of us. The staff are lovely and have been looking after mummy and daddy, as well as Jensen. They keep offering us accommodation as we are not too close, but after one night at my parents we are back home and making the commute as Phil's lovely boss has given him a 5 day weekend.

We are hoping and wishing to be back before Easter is over.

After my little surgery

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