Add on to yesterday’s post with the photos from my real camera:

These are the pictures in the pre-op waiting room. The last images of the poop bag! Good riddance!

Chomping on his glow thumb, he really found that to be fascinating

Still on leftover anesthesia and happy meds, smiling funny

These are the Trevor pictures from yesterday (surgery day)
While Trevor waited, he wrote a touching get well letter for his brother

“Hey! This is private stuff!!”

Trevor just played in jail all day

He likes to play with baby jail from the outside!

So cute! He mimics well!

And now on to today…

Trevor had enough jail, and decided to do some new exploring in to the deep dark basement of the jungle.

Brendan had a very hard night. His little body is so tolerant to pain meds and sedation, he kept waking up and crying. I am glad I was there all night to comfort him when he woke up. He really was scared. Today he was just miserable and had a hard time getting comfortable.

Brendan’s got a few post-op issues. The first is that any abdominal surgery makes the bowels freeze up (a lot of people experience constipation after surgery). He is not allowed to have anything (food or meds) in his tummy until they can hear bowel sounds and movement in his little gut. It is not moving yet – so he is missing all of his regular medications. Now that it is almost 2 full days, he is starting to feel the withdrawal/adjustment. He is getting morphine and ativan around the clock.
With his gut not getting food, he is feeling hungry. (IV fluids aren’t very filling) His little tummy and intestines are filling up with air and his belly is so big and bloated and uncomfortable. He needs to pass lots of gas! His other big problem is that he is not peeing at all. They have had to drain his bladder with a catheter several times. He had an abdominal xray to make sure things were OK, and then at about 7PM tonight, he finally made his own peepee pants! We all celebrated!

All of the air and iv fluid and no pee made Brendan swollen. His little belly was so hard. Right before I left tonight, he passed a couple of big giant farts and he felt better!

The new Gtube in his tummy allows his stomach to be vented. The nurses use a really big syringe to draw the air out and did it several times tonight. It just doesn’t help with the air in the intestines. They are leaving the syringe connected to vent continuously for now but they are very worried about him pulling on the new port. So he has to wear a mesh tube to cover it up. (clothes are just too hot)

Brendan also had to deal with some bleeding around his trach stoma today, the hospital circuit that attaches has so many sensors and crap that it was heavy and clunky and strained his neck badly. His trach ties were on extra tight and I think it was making his face a little puffy. Changing that out seemed to make him feel better too.

Getting his bed all fresh and more like home made him more comfortable. He was in a good mood for a short time and even smiled at trying to get the ice out of my cup.

Brendan got a visit from his old NP tonight. She joined the crowd of people saying “Oh, he is so big!”. He appreciates the cool stuff she brought and hopes to see her again when he is feeling much better.

It will be interesting tomorrow. Brendan is either going to get a PICC line and TPN or he is going to get his meds and some food through the tube in his nose. It will be a surprise. Bill is with him overnight, I hope those boys have a good sleepover and both get good rest tonight!