What a day

We called the hospital through the night last night and the nurse had said that things had gone downhill. When I got to the hospital this morning Benjamin had gotten worse again. They did more x-rays, more ultrasounds and bloodwork. Finally they decided to have a talk with the surgeon. The surgeon came up and looked at Benjamin. She first thought that she wasn't sure if she'd find anything and she didn't want to open him up because he was to sick. She ordered another ultrasound and noticed a lot of fluid built up around his organs. She decided then that surgery was going to be necessary. We were told that he was really sick and might not make it through. The surgeon decided that they would do th surgery right in the NICU to minimize the stress on Benjamin. My mom and dad came and supported us while we waited. Praise Jesus that he made it through. The surgeon found a 16cm piece of his intestine that was affected by the disease and it had 6 holes. Benjamin's body had tried to protect itself from the diseased area and the affected area had wrapped up in a ball and tuck under the middle of his tummy. Thats why it was never caught on x-ray. I'm so thankful for the doctor who went with her gut feeling and operated. He would just get more sick if she decided not to. Benjamin is fairly stable now...the next 24hrs are the most critical, and he will need another surgery in a month or so. But things are looking up. Thanks to everyone for the prayers..and especially to Mark and George who prayed with us before surgery. Praise God for the miracle He preformed today.

Thankful for small steps

Small steps in the right direction....I am so thankful for them. Today Benjamin had another x-ray. Finally his intestine looked smaller then yesterday. Praise God. I've attached an x-ray picture from his x-ray yesterday. You can see how swollen his intestines are, especially on his right side. His tummy has gotten a bit bigger again, but its fluid build up. Hopefully over the next couple days he'll be able to get rid of some of that fluid. Benjamin seemed a lot more comfortable today. He could even rest on his right side, which had been causing him so much pain the last few days. He is on the lowest settings on the oscillator so the nurse said the next step in to either switch to a conventional ventilator or extubate. Yay. We still don't know if Benjamin will need surgery. Once everything settles out and he starts eating again they'll asses how his intestine handles food. No one knows right now how much damage has been done. Pray that he will fully heal and not need surgery. We are so thankful for all the prayers from everyone who knows and especially from those who don't know us. I know Benjamin has quite the following on here and we appreciate every prayer said.

A better day

This morning when we got to the hospital Benjamin looked better. The nurses and RTs noticed this as well. His belly was a little bigger, they are now measuring the changes. But it wasn't as red as yesterday. They did a repeat x-ray and there has been no change in his intestines. Which is good. It hasn't gotten worse. He has slowly been weaning from the oscillator. His numbers were great and he was doing well getting rid of his carbon dioxide and keeping his oxygen where it should be. His hemoglobin and platelates are still a little low...he may require more transfusions, but thats ok. The doctor seems to think we are past the most critical point now..Of coarse there are no guarentees, but we're praying he's on the mend. We're gonna keep praying, because thats all we can do.

One day at a time

What an emotional rollercoaster we are on right now. Benjamin is ok. For a sick baby he is stable. His bloodwork has improved. He had another blood transfusion last night and his hemoglobin is up, which is good. His platelets are low, but not dangerously low, its just proof that his body is fighting an infection. The doctor confirmed today that Benjamin does have necrotizing entercolitis. His intestine is very swollen and therefore his belly is very swollen. They will keep a close eye on him because with this condition his bowel could perforate which would require immediate surgery. There is a 50/50 chance that he will need surgery in the future to remove the part of the intestine that the infection has affected. We're praying he will not need this and will recover with no problem. Benjamin was very uncomfortable this morning...its hard to see him in pain. He was crying. But the nurse gave him so more pain medication, so I am thankful for that. We are definitely no out of the woods so more prayers are appreciated.

Thanks

I just want to say thank you to all the people who have been praying for Benjamin. Last night we left feeling a bit better about his situation then we did in the morning. The doctor thought things were starting to look up. We called at 3am to see how he was doing and got a good report from the nurse. This morning Benjamin was much more active then he had been the last few days, but he was obviously uncomfortable. The nurse thought as he moved his tummy hurt more so he got some pain medication which really seemed to help. His blood pressure came down, his heart rate came down and he slept. The doctor is doing another abdominal x-ray tonight at 6pm. They believe Benjamin has an infection called necrotizing entercolitis, which is common in preterm babies, especially ones as small as him. They started stronger anti-biotics as well...so hopefully this is the turn around. His tummy still looks very swollen and he may require another blood tranfusion in the next day or so. He is also off of oxygen and is breathing room air through his oscillator which is also a positive step.. I'm hoping that within the next week he'll be off that and back onto a regular ventilator.
I feel like we are back to square one...but as long as he is getting better I'm ok with starting over. He is such a fighter...he definitely keeps me going.

Prayers

Thats what we need right now. Benjamin is very sick. He was intubated yesterday afternoon, and now today he is on a machine called a oscillator. This means his condition has gotten worse and he is unable to do the breathing on his own. He had a blood transfusion today through an IV in his head. The doctors also put another line in his left arm so they could take blood without poking him every 3-4 hours. After the tranfusion the nurse was expecting his bloodwork to look better, unfortunately it hasn't improved. The doctors still aren't sure what is causing him an issue. His x-ray this morning showed his belly looking better, so the cause of his illness is still unknown. He did seem to be moving around more this afternoon and he had his eyes open for a bit, which is good, but we were hoping to see more of an improvement by now.
Anyways, the girls are gone for the weekend and Jon and I are spending a lot of time at the hospital. He's a strong boy, so hopefully he'll fight his way through this.

Sick little boy

We got a phone call from the nurse this early this morning. I think my heart skips a few beats everytime the hospital calls. Throughout the night Benjamin wasn't digesting his milk. They did an x-ray on his belly and things seemed kind of off. His belly was distended. The nurse stopped his feeds and did all sorts of tests. My poor little guy has blood taken from several sights and also a lumbar puncture. It makes me so sad that I can't always be there with him when he goes through these procedures. I just think about him crying and me being there to comfort him. Anyways, it will take a few days for some of the results to come in. They started a round of antibiotics and will repeat his x-ray this afternoon to check how things are going. The good thing is is that his breathing is still stable.. they increased his oxygen, but he is still just using the nasal cannulas. The nurse did say there was a chance they could have to intubate him again, we're praying that his breathing remains stable and they won't have to do that. I can't hold him or even touch him right now, so that is hard. I just want to comfort him. This is so hard, and I am so scared, but I know he's in the best place he can be right now. Pray for healing.