Thomas' Surgery is Tomorrow 28/01/08

Hello Everyone,
We have good news, Thomas is booked to have his Oesaphagus repaired (joined to his stomach) on Tuesday 29th Jan.
The booking of course depends on emergencies and whether they can fit him in but that is the plan. The Pneumonia cleared in 3 days so that was really good.
Yesterday Thomas' Broviac line had to be removed. It broke down Friday/Saturday and a contrast study that was done Sunday morning showed that it may have been fractured and was leaking into his tissues. Thomas had blood taken on Friday after he had a really high temperature of 38.9, the results of that test showed an infection which the Doctors were trying to manage with antibiotics. Saturday some swelling came up in his abdomen and Thomas had pain and he needed Panadol.
Panadol is a fabulous pain killer for babies its really effective. I would not have thought so, even though I have always given it to all my babies, when they are hooked up to all the Heart rate and respitory rate monitors and having their pain monitored constantly you can really see the effect. Its much more effective than on adults. Thomas had sedation yesterday so he slept all day until very late last night.
We were concerned that Thomas' surgery will have to be delayed because of the infection. He is still having antibiotics and the Surgeon Russell Taylor says that he will still plan to go ahead on Tuesday.
He will put another Broviac line in when Thomas is in surgery. In the meantime Thomas now has an IV line in his foot. The Broviac line is the white on that you can see in the pictures. It goes in just below his belly button under the skin and it enters the Femoral artery in his groin, it is used to deliver drugs into a large vessel. This is because babies have tiny veins that can be damaged by intravenous drugs so they need to be administered into large vessels.
We were trying to work out how to manage his airways by trying out a cycle where he Thomas had 1 hour off CPAP and 3 hours on. The idea was that he will get more and more used to not having the air under pressure and he will be able to go without it soon, it wasn't working very well. Thomas was getting a bit upset or stressed. The Doctors decided that we would stop trying to cycle his CPAP on and off. The reason being to give Thomas the best chance to be in peak condition ready for his surgery on Tuesday.
Thomas is now having fortified feeds, which means that he is having extra formula added to his milk so that he would gain weight. It seems to be working well, he has gained weight. The last weigh in was on Wednesday at 4.480kg. The frozen breastmilk has run out so he is having some Alfare formula as well as the milk that I am producing, I am making about 300mls of milk a day which isnt enough to feed him. He is having a total of about a litre of milk a day or 41mls per hour. He is having bolus feeds now so he will have 41mls in half and hour and then nothing for half an hour. This method is preparing his stomach to accept a whole feed at once instead of his milk being dribbled in continuously.
Thomas Turned 100 on Thursday. Days that is. He got a certificate and lots of attention, He spent lots of the afternoon on the floor in his rocking chair as you can see in the picture. He had a really good few days before all the stuff happened with the Broviac line. Deans Mum, Betty came to visit on Friday and she got to have a cuddle with him.
Rowan has been at his Fathers house the last 2 weeks but school is starting this week so he will be coming back. I'll write and let you know how the surgery went. To our army of prayers, please keep us in prayer at this time. Thank you and bless you all.Lots of love to all of you from all of us
Julie, Dean, Rowan & Thomas
Sorry, ran out of time to attach pictures, they are on the web though
please see the link at http://www.harveynorman.fujicolur.com.au/Deanandjulie