8 Days Old and 2nd surgery

Hi everyone,

Well it’s been a crazy 8 days since Tahnee was born! A lot has happened since her surgery last week Friday. Firstly, since then the doctors have slowly begun reducing her midazolam (sedative) levels and it was turned completely off on Monday.

At the same time the doctors were also reducing her morphine levels (a bit slower than the sedative though). Over last weekend she was receiving 20micrograms per kilo per hour, and everyday they reduced it, until yesterday when it was down to 5micrograms per kilo per hour! They decided not to reduce it further as she was scheduled for surgery.

The next big item of news that we heard on Monday and Tuesday was that her operation was being brought forward, depending how she went. Her next operation to put her bowel back inside her body and stitch her up was scheduled for Friday the 2^nd September. Each day the doctors do their rounds and would push a bit more of the bowel inside. Gravity also helped to move it down. The doctors were extremely impressed with how fast the bowel was moving that they moved the surgery to WEDNESDAY afternoon (yesterday)!!

Wednesday was a very interesting day. In the morning we were able to introduce ourselves to the parents of another baby in the NICU. We had heard the day before that their baby was also born with a diaphragmatic hernia! Its great being able to share this journey with someone who is going through exactly the same emotions at the same time. We can each be a support for the other. That baby also went for surgery yesterday afternoon, but we haven’t spoken with his parents since then.

Wednesday afternoon at around 230, Tahnee headed off for her second surgery in less than a week. We were told the whole procedure, including going under anaesthetic, would take about 3 hours. However, after only 2 hours the surgeon was back with great news. The operation was a success! The bowel went back inside very easily and there was enough skin to stitch the wound closed without needing another patch!

Within minutes of returning back to the ward, Tahnee had her eyes open and was very alert. The nurses upped her morphine levels due to her surgery (just in case she was in pain). And since then she has returned to her “stable” stats, although overnight her pain scores were very high so the nurses upped her morphine levels back up to 20mics.

After surgery - no more bag!

This morning on their rounds, the doctors dropped the morphine levels. Once they reach a certain level (unknown to us) they will remove the breathing tube in her nose. They will more than likely switch her onto a different ventilator that makes her do more of the work. They hope to do this, as well as remove other tubes over the next two days.

As for me and Chris, we are doing well under the circumstances. Just the usual complaint that all “new” parents have – lack of sleep!! Our bodies and minds are also adjusting to the conditions associated with the NICU. The room is very warm, so we need to remember to stay hydrated. Plus we are learning all the medical terms etc.

Lucas is also adjusting okay. It must be confusing for him to not have mum and dad around like normal. Thankfully he enjoys his days that he spends with a friend while we are at the hospital. However, he is starting to do little naughty things – for instance my brown tile laundry floor became white when he discovered the laundry detergent tub on the floor was accidentally left open!!

He also wants to do things that mum does – and a few times he wants to “help” get milk out for Tahnee. This “help” includes him expressing milk from himself and also helping me by pumping the trigger. It’s very cute!