Surgery #3: Reanastomosis

Eli went under for his 3rd (and hopefully final!) surgery on Monday. We were actually looking forward to this one! The procedure—called a reanastomosis—is done by stitching his two stomas that have been sticking out of his tummy back together and placing them back inside the abdomen. Overcoming this surgery is another big step towards coming home! Jason and I got to the hospital a few hours before the surgery. They let me hold Eli right up until the surgeon arrived so I could have some last snuggles. He was so cute and happy; it made up for not being able to hold him for the rest of the week.

When the surgeon came in, he gave us his little spiel of all the risks that could happen with surgery. We were feeling very confident until the surgeon started explaining there's a 50% chance of him having to do a different procedure. Since Eli's intestines have been split in two basically his whole life, it is possible they are not the same size. If that is the case, the two pieces would not be reconnected. The stoma that is coming off of the stomach would be reconnected at the colon. The other stoma would stay on the surface and he would continue to have an ostomy bag. At nine months, he would go back in for surgery to completely reconnect. This was a huge bummer to hear, especially right before surgery! We left praying and hoping that the stomas matched up so we could officially be done with ostomy bags. Our nurse that day was really sweet and said she would call us from the OR and let us know if the stomas matched or not so we wouldn't have to wait and worry for long. About 30 minutes into surgery we got the call—everything matched and Eli was in one piece! We felt so relieved and happy. Everyone said Eli did excellent during surgery. The surgeon came to speak with us and said the stomas differed in size by only 1mm, which was fine for reconnection. It took about 50 stitches just to connect the intestines. Eli's scar is pretty long and gnarly.

He was pretty out of it for the next 48 hours… poor guy.

It's gotten a lot better, but it's still a pretty crazy battle wound. 

Eli had to be reintubated for the surgery since the pain medication sedated him so much he couldn't breathe on his own. We knew this was going to set him back a little, but once the initial pain medication wore off he, has recovered better than we could have imagined. He is entirely off pain medication and his scar is healing really well. Yesterday, they extubated him and placed him back on CPAP! His blood gases have been amazing, and the doctors predict he will be on a high flow nasal cannula next week! This is a HUGE step and we are so excited for our little guy. On nasal cannula, he can start breastfeeding, get baths, and the grandmas can finally hold him!

He is so done with this CPAP. (I just realized that CPAP looks like CRAP, ha ha)

Today, Eli will start to be fed orally again. Ever since surgery he has been getting nutrition through an IV. We hope that his intestines function properly and that a stricture has not formed where the intestines were stitched together. A stricture is formed by excess scar tissue and it decreases the diameter of the intestine at the surgery site. The surgeon explained it to us as a highway being closed down to one lane during rush hour. If a stricture occurs, surgery will need to be performed again and we will basically be back to square one with stomas and ostomy bags. So far there have been no indications that a stricture exists, and we keep praying it stays that way!

This has been a huge week for Eli and he has made more progress than we could have hoped! Next step: learning how to eat. 

By the way, he's over 6 lbs!