Tummy Troubles Beginning to Look Serious

Evidently I got a little too excited about what I saw on Friday. Apparently, the meconium I saw Truman pass was the last that he passed, and it wasn't much. Also, the earlier stool I saw wasn't consistent with breast milk, it was just diluted from an enema. This means that he has yet to actually eat any food and pass it through his system.

It looks like the blockage is higher up, and is totally blocked. His bowel is also getting distended from all the air building up behind the blockage. He is getting "loopy," which means that there is enough air in his intestines to make the "loops" of intestine visible through his skin. We talked to Dr. Redfield about it today. They are going to continue giving him daily glycerin enemas for another few days in the hopes that they can prompt him to pass it on his own. If not, they may have to call in a surgeon to take a look and try to come up with options. Who would have thought with all the major complications that could have occurred with Truman that what we originally thought of as such a minor thing would be causing so much trouble. The meconium blockage is an issue that is becoming increasingly important every day.

Fortunately, he's not showing any signs of NEC (a type of very serious colitis) or any other sickness or infection that could have a serious, long-term impact. However, he is clearly uncomfortable from the distention and has been requiring more sedation these last couple of days. We've also had to begin limiting the amount of external stimulation that we can give him (once again) because of his continual discomfort. If we mess with him too much, his oxygen saturation and blood pressure can be impacted negatively.

Overall, he continues to do really well with blood pressure, O2 levels, and blood gases, but because of the inability to move his bowels, breast milk feedings have once again been stopped, and we're starting to lose the sense of joy we've had from his victories thus far, and are really beginning to worry about this next obstacle.

We'll keep you posted.

--Kara