Well...I sure haven't been very good about keeping up on news. Benjamin did well following surgery but his incision didn't hold together. That happened on the Sunday after surgery, so on Monday I took him in to the surgeons and they had a look. He also began a course of antibiotics and has done pretty well the last week.
Until yesterday....I could just tell he was 'off' yesterday morning. He was playing some, but seemed uncomfortable in a vague sort of way. By mid-afternoon he was asleep in the entryway and by 5 or so, he started vomiting. We felt so sorry for him, but couldn't land on anything that seemed to be the problem for sure. Larry went to work about 10:15 and I was contemplating sleeping on the sofa next to Benjamin's crib in the family room. But he was retching so frequently by about 1am, I thought "this isn't going to work". Anne helped me think thru the best strategy for dealing with this drama...Jamie had to be at Central Bible for a CYT carpool by 7:30 am (she's a counselor for them this summer). Anne suggested they take Krissy with them to drop Jamie off, and then Anne would come along to help me. I wasn't relishing trying to drive and 'be there' for Benjamin at the same time. So that's what we all did and it worked!
The ER staff was very responsive, probably moreso because Benjamin wasn't. He was really lethargic and seemed to repeatedly forget to breathe regularly. The xray showed a bowel obstruction and his tummy was getting visibly bigger. He was admitted to the Pediatric ICU just before 6am, so that's where we are. I can barely keep my eyes from crossing...just not used to 32 hr. blocks with no sleep. He had a number of random abnormal labs too, many of them due to his significant dehydration. We don't know why, but he had a fasting blood sugar of nearly 200, unheard of for him. The surgeon came and said if things were still significantly off with the mid-day lab results, he would take him for exploratory surgery this afternoon. Thankfully the xray looked a little better, things seem to be working AND his lab work seemed to be improving as well. They are still working up the apnea spells and now, also the fever that he's developed. He's on 2 IV antibiotics and the reason I'm out at the computer is that the IV team is putting in a PICC line. Thanks for your prayers. I'll try and update in the morning...I would expect we will be in the PICU for another day anyway. He's pretty lethargic, although less apnea spells this afternoon.
Love, janelle