24 Hours

What exactly is 24 hours? Is it a smaller part of something larger? Is it important? Could we live without 24 hours or is it the whole world. Well, as I approach 24 hours of being awake, my answer is yes! Simply yes.

The coffee pot started that beautiful dripping noise at 2 a.m. Monday morning accompanied by heavy wind, rain, and thunder, and lightning. Kelsea got the boy fed, and I slowly came to life. We were on the road by 3:50 and checked in to the same day surgery center at Children's in St. Louis around 6:30. At the time, we didn't know if Hayden would be kept overnight, but we were shortly informed that he would be kept on a "23 Hour" admittance for observation.

Hayden's surgery went great. Dr. Warner came out to talk to Kelsea and I afterwards and told us that he had two large hernias and they were both fixed. He was also very impressed with his Omphalocele progression. Originally, it was estimated that his closure surgery would occur around one year of age. Dr. Warner stated today that it was looking great, had greatly reduced in size, and even though it was still a large opening, he thought Hayden would be ready for his closure in 3-4 months. While Hayden was under anesthesia, Dr. Warner was able to reduce all of his organs in the Omphalocele back into his abdominal cavity. That was absolutely amazing to hear and made my day. Now, while he is awake, there is still not enough room and Hayden would have complications, but it was great to hear he is progressing well.
However, it went downhill from there. Hayden was inconsolable in recovery. It took about 90 minutes for him to calm down enough to go to his room on the 10th floor. This is where Kelsea and I's patience started to wear thin with each other. My patience was actually being tested by several employees of Children's Hospital who were acting like Kelsea and I had been through this a hundred times and as if this was their first "kids" rodeo. Up in his room, Hayden was never quite himself. I attributed it to the anesthesia and need to be intubated, which caused a ton of gas in his intestines. However, we are not really sure, but Hayden was CRANKY tonight!

He ended up having a horrible night and throwing up for about an hour straight. Surgery team came, and ordered some xrays. Food was withheld, and here we are at 5:34 a.m. waiting for the full surgical team to make their rounds. Kelsea slept for a few hours and then I slept for a few hours. Something else seems to be going on. We have withheld food for the rest of the night until more heads can come together. They allowed me to give him 30 ml after I made everybody feel sorry for him! Everybody has been great. Dr. K came and visited him as well. It has just been a long night and I am afraid they are going to end up telling us (again) they can't find anything wrong and it is just one of those things. I know the doctors and nurses get frustrated as well when there are problems that seem to arise from nothing. I also know that is the issue when you are dealing with something that is somewhat rare. However, its difficult to take in that explanation! We will see what the next hour holds as the doctors start to do their rounds and hopefully, in the next 12 hours, Hayden will get more than the 60 minutes of sleep (not very good sleep either) that he got in the past 18 hours.