We came into the hospital this morning, Josiah's tube would not flush last night. We let him sleep and this morning when I tried to give him some pedialyte he would not take it. So we had to come in and he was hooked up to fluids. He went down for a flouroscopy and had another nasal feeding tube placed down into the 4th chamber of his doudenum. The surgeon came in and met with me. His name is Dr. David Lanning. He and the other doctors and specialists have decided to proceed with the surgery on his LES muscle and to place a G-tube as well. He will have 5 total incisions, only 2 of which will be lifelong scars. But scars are cool, just ask his daddy ;-)
The surgery is laproscopic which has very minimal risks, years ago the risks were much higher because it was an "open surgery" meaning one large incision. Many patients were not able to swallow, burp or vomit and always had problems in the small intestine. That is not a risk in the present, with the new way of operating.
The way it works; the top part of your stomach is basically just like lose skin. Not necessary for the volume your stomach holds. That piece of stomach will be wrapped around his LES (lower esophageal sphincter ).
This is the LAST option, and our best option for Josiah's sake. We have met with 3 different surgeons and two different GI doctors. Countless nurses and hospital pediatricians. Being something that should have been done back in October when he had his life threatening event, we are very informed on the procedure and recovery.
We will know Tuesday, when the surgery will be performed. It should be sometime between Wednesday-Friday. Depending upon the surgeon getting an OR, it will be at either MCV, St Marys, or Chippenham. Hospitalization is typically 2-3 days and recovery can be anywhere from 3-9 months, depending on his abilities.
Nasal feeding tubes are not a long term solution and most of the time it is just enough to get the patient past the "hump". With Josiah he has far too many problems and weighing the risks and benefits...this surgical procedure is the best choice.
We will be going home soon, there are too many children here with RSV (which to him could pose fatal results) If he were to suffer from any type of respiatory infection surgery can not be performed until 4-6 weeks later! So the goal is to not get sick and to not have any tube malfunctions between now, and surgery.
*happy to go home and ring in 2011 as our complete family of 4!!*
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