Relief

Max is doing a little better today. They were able to put the ostomy bag back on this afternoon. His surgeon came by to check the incision. He believe it is just in the outer layers of tissue and it not a danger to his bowels. He did tell us the incision may get uglier, split open and the infection ooze out in order to heal. Since he plans to cut that same incision open for Max's final repair, he said not to worry if it looks like a gaping hole.

He could not say when we should expect it to clear up, but said if it continued to be a problem he'd probably just do the final repair surgery sooner than later. He said now that Max is up to full feeds, it's an option, but he would like to wait as long as possible for weight gain, respiratory health, etc...

Once Max got the bag back on, he could be dressed, swaddled and place on his tummy. He's been asleep ever since...

He started receiving the donor breast milk last night for his 8pm feeding. He first went to half milk and half formula but the transition was so seamless, he's already to full breast milk. He also went up to 16 ml/ hour which a is a full feed for his body weight. They will give him a full 24 hours at that amount and then will start fortifying the milk to help strengthen those brittle bones.

He has lost weight every day for the last 2 weeks, mainly because of all the fluid he was retaining, but tonight, he finally seems to have leveled off. He's at 5 lbs. 7 ozs. They have been estimating his actual weight at 5.6. They have stopped his daily Lasix now and will only give him injections of that drug, as needed, to help with his fluid retention.