Wednesday, August 8

Surgery has finally been scheduled for next Wednesday, August 15th, at 8:30 am, CST. During the procedure, Dr. Sudan plans to place a
"GJ-tube" where Collin now has the g-tube. This will allow a back-flow to occur in case his intestines are too inflamed to process the feeds at first; it will hopefully alleviate some of the vomiting that Collin has endured in the past. He will have this in place for about 2-3 weeks, before they revert to the "g-tube".

Also, during the surgery, they will pull the broviac catheter line and put another in a different area of his chest. (See the entry for Monday, March 12 for more information on the "broviac catheter".) Often times patients with broviac lines will develop infections in the lines and will have to have new lines made. In Collin's case, his mom has done such a good job with his cares that they haven't had to deal with an infection there. Collin's broviac line (which he has had for almost 5 months without infection) has developed a sheath-like blood clot at the end. It allows medicines to be administered through the line, but when they try and pull something (blood sample) back out, the sheath-like clot covers the end of the line and they aren't able to draw from it anymore. The new line will ensure he gets his medicines properly AND they'll be able to do their weekly blood-draws, as well.

The doctor predicts that he should be home a week or two after surgery; she says it will take about a month for Baby Collin to get back to where he was as far as no tpn, the level of feeds, etc. We think this sounds great! To illustrate how amazing the S.T.E.P. is, Dr. Sudan previously had a patient with 50 cm of intestine going into the operation come out with 100 cm of intestines. Dr. Sudan has the highest survival rate and has done far more of these procedures than any other surgeon in the country. God surely has blessed Collin to put him in her hands at this perfect time.

Another piece of exciting news is that once Collin is fully recovered and back up to his "high point" with feeds, etc., they are planning to introduce solid food to him! (Grandma better start shopping for some cute dishes and silverware!)

As I close, (and since I don’t have any recent pictures of Baby Collin) I will toss out a belated "Happy Birthday!" to Collin's Uncle R., as well as a photo of his AWESOME, yummy birthday cake.