Surgery scheduled

Max's bowel surgery is 1pm Friday.

We don't know exactly what will happen once they get in there. It's exploratory, because they can only tell from the films that there is a blockage a short way up in the bowel which stops the dye from getting through any further. That could be the only problem, or the whole bowel could be a disaster above that. So they'll go in fix that blockage point, pull out ALL of his intestines and run for other problems and go from there.

It could take one hour or many hours. If it's just the one blockage, survival rate is 90% percent, damage beyond that drops the chances. Biggest risks are his respiratory because his lungs are so immature. They are the strongest this week that they've ever been, so that's a plus. The neo-natologist says "this is our window" so we're going.

Next big risk is blood loss. The bowels can be a very bloody surgery and when you're that tiny, you don't have much blood to begin with. Max will get another blood transfusion tomorrow afternoon to prep him for the surgery. They will also take special radiated blood from the NICU specifically for him to the surgery in case it's needed. Max will leave the NICU with his bedside nurse, respiratory therapist, nurse practitioner and a neo-natologist as well as the pediatric surgeon and pediatric anesthesiologist. He will be taken directly to a surgical suite which is heated to about 98 degrees to keep his body warm, since he can't control that on his own.

Max's bedside nurse is Charlotte and we love her. He has had so many nurses already, but it's great that Charlotte started a shift with him today and will work with him the next 3 days as well. That gets us through surgery and his first day of recovery. She hopes to be able to call us from the OR to let us know what the surgeon has found, what's being done, etc... but it all depends on how busy the OR becomes and is Max needs her constant attention. We may be flying blind and just waiting for the surgeon to come up and let us know the outcome.

Once the surgery is complete Max will come directly back to his room in the NICU for recovery, since it's the best spot for the needs of his tiny body.

This was not the choice we hoped to make, but it's our last hope to save Max and get him moving forward. His bowels will not heal with out surgery and he will starve eventually if we can't get food into him, so we have to try this. Friday will be an excruciating day for us. Letting them wheel away our baby and knowing that he may not come back is unbearable, but we hope this surgery will help Max and take us a step closer to getting him healthy and home.

Thanks for the thoughts and prayers, keep 'em coming! We'll try to update as often as we can on Friday.