October 19th - Surgery ?

Well, Benjamin has continued to be stable with just a few episodes where his oxygenation has fallen for a brief time to lower than we would like, but as I said, he recovered, on his own quite nicely. He was a bit fluid overloaded which may have contributed to this, so they repositioned him and increased his medication to clear more fluid and then his oxygenation improved to some of the best numbers since being on ecmo. Ben's surgeon, Dr. Saito, is tentatively planning the repair of his diaphragmatic hernia for Thursday of this week if he continues to stay stable or improve a bit. After that, we will be in for a more tenuous period again as the surgery itself will be a big stress for him....and the recovery as well. This is not a cure-all, and we are in no way out of the woods when the surgery is completed. This will simply remove the abdominal contents from the chest cavity and allow the lungs and heart the room they should have had in the first place. Since his abdominal cavity hasn't had these organs in it, this will be a literal stretch for the abdominal portion of his body. Since baby's belly breathe quite a bit, this could initially make it harder to try to breathe as it could then put pressure on the organs that are normally in the abdominal cavity. He will also most likely take on quite a bit of fluid retention from the surgery as well....these things along with the pain from the surgery will all be stresses that could potentially affect him. I will try my best to update everything as often as possible, but as you can imagine, being with Ben will be a main priority. Also, if any status changes occur even right before the surgery, it could be postponed. Please continue to pray for a safe surgery and fast recovery for our little sweetie. Thanks, Kel