Day 179

It is Saturday evening. From our last post, we knew that surgery was coming for R. We learned on Wednesday that his surgery would take place on Friday (December 5). With that coming as quickly as it did, we asked the surgeon if we could take R home with us for about 24 hours or so, thinking it would be nice for him to spend some time out of the hospital. We, of course, wanted to spend some time with him. The hospital agreed and it was a wonderful time we had with him.

Surgery was scheduled for Friday morning. It took about 4 hours to complete. The plan was to fix the problem area - his fistula where most of his stool came out. They also planned to fix the area around his gj tube site and relocate his stoma. In short, there were three open wounds they would work on.

At the conclusion of the surgery, the surgeon came out and explained that everything had gone very well. She managed to fix the problem areas and, to our surprise, completed his take down. This means that rather than relocate his stoma, she connected it and put it back into his body. This is normally done about one year after transplant, but the surgeon felt he was ready to have it done now. The great news is he will no longer need a surgery in June for his take down. It's been completed!

As of Saturday evening, R remains in the PICU. We expect him to be there for some time. He will need several weeks to heal. If you recall, he had some significant challenges coming out of previous surgeries. We pray all goes well and the doctors and nurses will be an extension of God's healing touch to him. In addition, R has about a 5 inch incision running vertically on his abdominal area as well as another approximate 5 inch incision running horizontally. It is quite a site.

R has a big battle ahead of him. We will do our part and walk along side as he fights. Thank you for joining with us and praying.