Another Surgery Day for Eli

Today is Eli's big surgery date! We are to arrive at Children's Hospital by 10am for prep, IV, and a few breathing treatments pre-op. His OR is scheduled for 12 and both his general surgeon and his GI doctor will be performing surgeries on him. Eli is having an incisional hernia repaired that developed along the 5" abdominal scar from his Nissen fundoplication surgery in May. He is also having a muscle biopsy taken out of his right thigh (at least we think it will be the right and not the left) to test/rule out possible mitochondrial disorders. This would explain his extremely high caloric need for growth at around 3,000cal/day which is more than triple what is normally required of a child his size. Eli's entire GI track is also getting the works as well. His GI is doing an endoscopy and colonoscopy both complete with biopsies to see if they can finally get to the bottom of all of his GI issues for once.

Tonight has gone lovely so far with Eli's bowel prep for surgery. He has gotten senna through his MIC-key button in addition to 2 whole ounces of Milk of Magnesia in two split doses. The poor child has been a pooping machine all night and has been woken up twice for baths due to being covered in runny, watery poo. Sorry for the TMI but parents will understand. We are worried about how he is going to handle being taken away from all food and drink in the morning when he wakes up. If you know Eli, you know he eats 24/7 when he is awake. Keeping him NPO and NPg-tube until his surgery at 12 is going to be nothing short of miraculous. At least one of his late night baths tonight was just in time for his last meal before the 12am cutoff.

Check out the blog for updates from his surgery. We're praying that his wheezing and coughing will be under control and not cause problems with anesthesia and coming off of the vent post-op. Children's has computer access so hopefully I'll be able to post a quick update once he gets out of surgery around 2-2:30 (it should take about 2 hours or so). Thanks for all of the prayers and well wishes......here we go again!