NEC Update - March 10, 2014

The surgeons looked at Ryan's incision and it's healing well and doesn't need to be packed anymore.  It sounds like he will be going home with his ostomy bag and will go back to the hospital in a few months for the surgery to get his intestines put back together.  Unless the baby is having a problem with his digestion, it's preferable to wait until they're a few months older before putting them through surgery because they'll be better able to handle the surgery.  Right now, his food goes through the digestion process up to the intersection of his small and large intestion and then is diverted out of his body into a bag.  Some babies have a problem with dumping, which means that the food isn't digested very much and is just passed through the small intestine and into the bag.  If a baby has problems dumping, they'll put the intestines back together sooner.  His lip and nose surgery will be between 3 and 6 months, so the surgeons will need to coordinate the timing of the two surgeries.  I asked if they could be done at the same time to minimize the amount of times under anesthesia and they said no.  There would be risk of cross contamination because the surgeries are on the opposite ends of his body.

In other news, he likes being in his open crib and getting to snuggle with his cute blankets and his monkey.