Tomas does have to have the surgery for his hernia. The doctor said it is not reducing (pushing back in), and that it is an acute issue but not an emergency. He wanted to do it this week, but I asked if he thought it could wait until next since Mike is out of town until Friday. And Halloween is on Sat. and I would be so sad if we couldn't do anything with the girls. He said it could, as long as it doesn't show any danger signs. I am well aware of what those are since he's had the hernia for so long. If anything should come up Mike will, of course, fly home. But since he's already planned it he may as well finish up this week and then be able to take a few days off next week.

After talking with the surgeon he suggested splitting up the repairs that need to be done. The others will be fixed later. Originally, we were going to repair everything (morgagni, hiatal, umbilical, any adhesions from previous surgeries, nissen re-do) all at the same time. But with the new finding from the ENT (reflux still going on) it is pointless to fix anything in his stomach because it could open up again if he starts retching.

If we want to try feeding him through his gastric port than we need to do it before the big surgery so if he does stomach crunch it won't tear anything open. Then, either it will work and he can tolerate gastric feeds and his stomach doesn't contract and the surgery will have a greater chance of sticking, or the feeds don't work and we go back to j-tube feeds and the surgery will still have a better chance of sticking because we aren't putting anything in his stomach. The key being we need to try before the surgery.

As for the upcoming surgery, I don't have a date yet, just next week. The Dr.'s office will call later with the date. It is supposed to be an outpatient surgery. They'll be keeping him for a 23 hour obs. and if all goes well he can go home. It will be at Medical City. The Dr. said the only unknown is how well he'll be able to get the bowel back in due to the previous surgeries.

I am praying like crazy for the courage to move forward. The last surgery was so traumatic. For those of you new to the blog, Tomas bled out and nearly died twice. The surgical team didn't want to go back in to fix him because it was too risky to lose that much more blood. So instead they kept repacking him all night long and eventually he did stop bleeding. Then he just laid there completely still for several hours until he finally gave out and began dropping his sats. His heart rate took a nosedive. Thank God the respiratory therapist was in the room at the time. She pulled the CODE cord and everyone came running. He was bagged and pulled through, only to have the same thing happen again about 1 hour later. He needed a blood transfusion by then. He was 6 weeks old.

I know with my mind that he is a much healthier baby than he was 7 months ago. My heart still aches and my body still trembles when I relive it though. He did have ear tubes placed in July, but they didn't have to cut into him to do that and I was only stressed because of the anesthesia issue. I need to let the past go and focus on this time. Easier said than done, but I have great friends, an amazing family, and an awesome God to help me.