Surgery Complete!

Christian was admitted to Shands at UF in Gainesville on April 8th. Bless his heart! He DID NOT want to go, but was cooperating because he knew he would get to take a ride on his bed and eat lots of chicken nuggets when his surgery was done and the doctor gave him the ok. We were admitted at 10am and taken to the room. He bounced around asking to ride the bed. Finally they came in to put in his IV and feeding tube. He went by himself because I had Catherine with me and Jason was getting our stuff settled at the RMH. They brought him back and he was sobbing and crying for mommy. I ended up just hugging and rocking him until he eventually cried himself to sleep. He was given some "GoLytely" a few hours later. After that was completed Jason and I slept with him at the hospital awaiting our surgery time. They took him down to pre-op at 6am and he slept through the "bed ride" that he had been waiting for. I let him sleep because I knew he would fight with us about the surgery. They took him in for surgery around 8:30am (April 9th). We received a call about 10:30am that the surgery went well. When they opened him up they found that the back of the patch had come away from the diaphram (a section about 3-4inches). The Dr said that there was about 3/4 of the patch still attached and had some muscle tissue growing over it, so instead of replacing the patch he just stitched up the loose part. Only a little bit of the bowel was found in the chest, which they just pushed back down into place. Christian was taken to the PICU for the first 24 hours. He slept for half of the time. They eventually moved him back down to the pediatric floor Friday morning. Because he was not getting good bowel sounds they didn't let him eat anything except a clear liquid diet until Easter Sunday. It wasn't until Sunday morning that he was able to get out of his bed and walk around. Once he found the playroom he didn't want to go back to the bed and since he was allowed to have "real" food ,finally, we took the wagon downstairs to the Wendy's and got him some chicken nuggets and mandarin oranges. He did wonderful and by Sunday the only pain medication he was taking was just a little bit of Tylenol. We were discharged on Monday the 13th. The first few days home he wanted to play of course, but was still taking breaks to rest. We were having problems with frequent loose bowel movements (sometimes as often as every 10 minutes for an hour then an hour break and then again every 10 minutes). Since he had been on an antibiotic for 48 hrs following the surgery we were away that this could be a side effect for up to 10 days. I ended up taking him to the pediatrician because it was continuing. All test results came back negative for E.Coli, Salmonella, and C. Diff, but positive for blood. He had 2 firm movements on Thursday morning and now we are back to the loose, just not as frequent. Poor guy is once again having to wear diapers and waking up at 3-5am with soiled pants. He is so devastated because he was doing so well with his potty training. I can't wait for his system to get back to normal. We went this past Monday to our follow up appt and were told that everything looks good. We don't have to go back to see the doctor for another year, but do have to have a chest X-ray done and mailed in August. Thank you to everyone for you thoughts and prayers!! He is now back to his happy wild self.