Still no photos

Well, life has been busy in Lil Man's world, so photos have not been being uploaded in a timely manner. Sorry. But, I thought that an update would be more important at this juncture than photos.

As Bachan said in the last blog, Everett will be going in for surgery on Monday, January 21, 2008. We will travel for pre-op tomorrow afternoon, and then they will operate EARLY Monday morning. They will be cutting the phylum to release a possible tethered cord.

I spoke with the neurosurgeon today, and he said that he spoke with the two other members of his practice to get a feel for what they thought about Everett. They all seemed to agree that this was the best time for this surgery. Although there is not an obvious site of tethering in the MRI (which means that it is possible that they will go in and there will be no tethering at all), they feel that it is better to operate now rather than later. The reasons are twofold. One is that it will prevent any further damage from occurring if the cord is, in fact, tethered. Once damage is incurred, it is either irreversible, or requires more surgeries to repair, so prevention is the best option here. Secondly, he will have a better recovery at this age. Since he is not sitting up on his own yet, he will not object as much to lying on his back for the days required of him. Also, since he has a colostomy, there is no danger of fecal matter getting back into the incision and infecting it. All in all, this is the best time to get this done. I will post more once we are out of surgery.

Then, here is how his surgeries will work out. After he heals from his spinal surgery, he will go in for surgery to repair his hernia. The doctor prefers to repair both sides at the same time to avoid having to go in again later.

About 3 weeks after his hernia repair, he will go in to have his pull-through done. Due to his lack of coccyx and shortened sacrum, the doctor is unsure how successful this operation will be. We are hopeful, but we will not know anything until around potty training age. His colostomy may also be moved at this time since he has a high IA, and the doctor is unsure of how much colon he really has to work with.

Then, we will do a bunch of dilation, and once he is dilated to the proper width, he will have the surgery to reverse his colostomy. Then, until potty training age, at least, we will have the normal poopy diaper situation. :) Who knew that we would be looking forward to poopy diapers so much. Someone please remind me of this when I go to change the second one. :)

All in all, Everett does not seem concerned at all about the upcoming surgeries. :) He is his normal, happy, stubborn, hard-headed self. :)

So, please keep us in your prayers this upcoming week. And I will keep you informed as much as I can. I will also try to teach Dylan how to post photos so that you are not deprived of seeing how huge our Little Man has become. :)

xoxo
Margot