You are never going to believe our week. From Saturday to Friday all we heard was NEC, then from a 'small' infection we went to 'severe' and 'very infected.' All of his tests looked worse and worse, while Benjy himself looked fine - if completely wiped out from the PDA surgery. (With NEC, tests can point to infection but can only be confirmed with certainty by actually opening someone up and looking.) On Friday they called and said his intestines had perforated and he needed emergency surgery.
Now, I'd been told by one of the attending docs earlier on that as well as Benjy was doing, the only thing that could keep us from taking him home was NEC. It had been a specter over our heads for a while - I knew very well that NEC kills babies. So this cascade of medical emergencies, never responding as we'd thought or hoped, felt an awful lot like the hours leading up to Benjy's birth. I just lost it when I heard that he'd perforated, all that remained was to hear how bad the infection was and whether enough of him remained to save.
Know what they found when they opened him up? Nothing. No signs of infection whatsoever. An isolated perforation was found and fixed, but that was more likely from medicine to close the PDA or else was caused by the needle used to test for perforation. The suspicious areas of intestine in the x-rays which caused so many alarms? Impacted stool.
We're completely stunned. I'm going to call this our first stroke of good luck since we started this whole baby/pregnancy thing, and even then it involved massively invasive surgery on a 3 week old baby. He had a rough few days at first - 2 surgeries in one week was a bit much for him - but he's doing well now.
Ok, but I do have a life outside of procreation (though not much of one). I've decided to keep my summer internship. I don't want to derail my whole life just so I can sit home, pump, cry, and hope for the best. This may be unrealistic but it's the best I've come up with given the completely unpredictable situation. I need to have a life outside the NICU, especially since I can't even hold him right now. Finals were miserable, but at least it gave me a way to occupy my mind. I'm hoping work will do the same.
Last note - this whole 2 to 3 hour pumping schedule has me identifying waaay too much with old Fred the Baker:
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I could just tell from the pictures -- that kid is TOUGH!
ReplyDeleteGood luck with the summer gig, I hope it's a much-needed distraction from your worries. Your little guy needs you at your best!
Awesome news.
ReplyDeleteI'm excited to read about the internship.
I'm terrified about mine.
Oh my gosh, I knew from the post title that it had to end well, but I did not like paragraphs 1 and 2. I'm so glad they didn't find anything, though I'm sorry they had to open him up to see that, and I'm so very happy that he is so strong and is doing well while he recovers from his surgeries.
ReplyDeleteBest of luck with the internship, I think you made a good decision. People will be (better be) understanding at your job and I totally agree with your thinking that you need something of yourself that is outside the NICU. Can't wait to hear about it.