Moving to Stanford...

| | Comments (2)

The vitrectomy for Matthew's right eye is now scheduled for this Saturday morning (tomorrow). It looks like he will be transported by ground ambulance to the Lucille Packard Children's Hospital up at Stanford some time today. After the surgery he will be staying there for a few days for observation in case the doctor needs to go back in for more surgery. Once they feel like everything looks good and when Matthew gets stable, he will be coming back to Valley Medical Center where all the doctors and nurses know him.

The surgeon's who would be performing the intestinal surgery don't think Matthew has Hirschsprung's disease so they are not going to do the intestinal biopsy at this time. They are also hoping that this feeding will work but if it doesn't then they will also test him for the Hirschsprung's disease when they go in to remove the stricture. They did start feeding him again yesterday at 2:00 p.m. beginning with 5 ml's every three hours. I was very concerned about this and expressed all my concerns, but two doctors assured me that it is such a small dose for him that it should be okay to start him on feeds again. The added benefit to this is that it acts as a gut stimulation. Apparently, if there is no stimulation in the intestines then it will sometimes cause the intestines to not work properly or not work at all. When they went to feed him his second feed at 5:00 p.m. he had the entire amount of milk as a residual plus some more. So how is it that you put in 5 ml's and then you get back 7 ml's of residual? They are thinking it could be that he still had some of the contrast dye still left in the stomach from the upper GI along with stomach acid which added to the increased amount of residual. I don't know how he did overnight, but I'll know more later today. Since he will need to stop being fed for 24 hours before eye surgery, they are not going to count this feeding towards whether or not he is tolerating feeds to determine if he needs intestinal surgery.

His respiratory status yesterday was much better although he continued to have a lot of drops in his oxygen saturation, but he seemed to recover much quicker than the day before. He is still on CPAP and is getting anywhere from 25 to 35% oxygen delivered to him.

I got to hold him for about an hour until we generated so much body heat that his respirations became very elevated because he was too hot so we had to put him back in his bed to cool off. Later in the afternoon, he was awake for almost 3 hours. It was such a wonderful blessing to be able to interact with him while he was in his quiet alert phase. I was even able to do some of the massage work that the physical therapist showed me how to do. He didn't like it at first, but when I continued again about 20 minutes later, he did much better the second time around. I think at first he thought when I was holding onto his legs and arms that I was looking for an IV site but once he realized I wasn't going to hurt him he calmed down. It was such an awesome bonding visit that we had and I was so very thankful that I had it.

Please pray that the transport goes smoothly without complications. Since I used to do transports like this when I worked for the ambulance company out here, there are things that can certainly go wrong. I guess to be more specific, please pray that all the equipment functions perfectly, the oxygen tanks don't run out of oxygen, that the batteries on the monitors and the isolette don't die in the middle of the transport and that we have excellent doctors or nurses that will care for him, handle him and transport him as if he was there own. Please also pray that the driver of the ambulance drives normal and smoothly and that he/she does not get into an accident. Please also pray that there is no trouble with the engine or tires of the ambulance and that it doesn't catch fire. (yes it can happen because I am living proof that when I transported a very sick baby in an isolette our ambulance caught fire due to an engine malfunction of some sort and it was NOT a fun time!) Please pray that Matthew gets great nurses and doctors at Stanford that watch over him. Please also pray that the surgery tomorrow goes smoothly without complications and that God will give Dr. Moshfeghi the rest he needs to be alert and to think clearly and positively and that God guides his hands throughout the entire procedure. Pray for Matthew to have the strength to pull through this with flying colors and that he is not in a lot of pain and that his recovery is remarkable. Please pray for us to have the continued peace and strength to get through this. I am nervous about all that is going to happen and scared to be doing it alone as Jason needs to be at work today. Thank you all so very much for your prayers and your comments. I love reading them all and am very encouraged by each and every one of them. Thank you again, and for those of you that we don't know, I hope that one day we will be able to meet you and have you hold the little boy that you've been praying for.

2 Comments

Jennifer:
The topic of my bible study last night was Wonder. It focused on how we are to wonder at the work of God's hands. I couldn't help but think of Matthew. Though it has been sometimes difficult, hasn't God done wonderful things in Matthew's life already. And isn't he doing wonderful things in the life of those who love Matthew as well - whether we know them or not!! I can only imagine your feelings of wonder as you bonded with him through the massage therapy!
We will continue to put you and Jason and Matthew in God's capable and wonderful hands. And we can all stand in awe at the work of God's hands in your lives!
We love you,
Beth & Ricardo
(By the way, can't wait to hold little Matthew in my hands as well!!)

Hey Jenn & Jason,

It's been awhile since I posted a note, so I just want to let you know, I've been reading and praying for you and Matthew. He is such an awesome warrior. I look forward with anticipation to see what God has in store for him. And I pray for the peace for you to endure this trial. How cool to hear about you bonding with him!! Thanks for sharing your lives, it is a blessing.

Bill

About this Entry

This page contains a single entry by Jenn published on September 26, 2003 7:31 AM.

More eye surgery... was the previous entry in this blog.

Successful Surgery (with some concerns) is the next entry in this blog.

Find recent content on the main index or look in the archives to find all content.