Pyloric Ste... WHAT??? Can you spell that?

This week has been a whirlwind. Wow!  In two days time, 4 members of our family had surgery... 2 planned, 2 not planned.  Isaac's was definitely NOT planned.  

So, how did this start? As we were asked this about 50+ times in 48 hours, we've worked on our story so that it is concise.  

5 weeks ago, Isaac started having issues with keeping his food down.  It was just one to four spit ups each day, usually only one large spit up.  

In the last week, Isaac's spitting up increased and turned projectile.  He would lose part (up to all) of his bottle 1 - 5 times per day.  Obviously, he continued to lose weight, losing 1lb. in the last week.  

In the last 3 days, his condition became worse and worse.  On Sunday night, he vomited during the night and then resumed doing this at about 4pm on Monday.  

Monday night at 8:30pm, he began projectile vomiting which lasted through 5 rounds and until after 10pm.  We were so alarmed and planned to go to the ER.   After speaking with our pediatrician, we decided to stay home and let the testing begin first thing in the morning... while feeding him 2 tsp of Pedialyte every 10-15 minutes during the night.  Needless to say, it was a long night. 

By morning, he was unable to keep down anything, not even Pedialyte.  We were obviously very concerned about dehydration.  We went to the doctor first thing the next morning.  As soon as she saw Isaac, she was on the phone with the hospital and we were on our way to the Emergency Department.  Isaac had lost 1lb. in 1 week.     

Within a few hours they had taken blood, started an IV with fluids, tested his urine, and started an ultrasound.  At 12:30pm, we were given the diagnosis of Pyloric Stenosis (which we had thoroughly investigated ourselves the night before) and told that we would soon be transferred to Brenner Children's Hospital for surgery.  

So... what is pyloric stenosis?  Basically, the muscle that joins the stomach and the intestine is overgrown so that it is basically closed... preventing food from leaving the stomach and being digested. This caused his decreased urine output and lack of bowel movements in the last 72 hours as well as reduced energy.   

At 3:00pm, we were following a critical care transfer ambulance to Brenner Children's Hospital.  We waited in their Emergency Department where the doctors reconfirmed his diagnosis and decided that he was way too dehydrated to do surgery that night, so he would be added to the surgical schedule for the next day.  

We were transferred up to the general peds floor about 8pm.  We were so blessed because our friends Pete & Cara visited us and brought us chick-fil-a for dinner.  It was so nice to see friends!  Our families had been praying for us so much that day and they all hated that they couldn't be there with us.  

While all of this was going on with Isaac, my Mom was with my Dad who was having surgery at High Point Regional.  God worked out a wonderful detail that my parent's pastor was able to come and stay with my Mom while she waited during my Dad's surgery since I wasn't able to be there.  Another huge blessing was that Brett's Mom and Grandmother had already planned to come out and visit us.  Can you believe that?  So they were already on a plane when we were at the hospital.  What a huge blessing to have them with us!   

Cuddles with Nana

Snuggling with Daddy

Brett said, "I shouldn't look happy in these pictures." Thus the next picture:

This was Grandma Jan's 1st time meeting her new great-grandson.

By the time of Isaac's surgery, he had gone without food for over 30 hours.  Fortunately, the IV fluids helped calm his appetite.  We didn't want our son to have to have surgery, but honestly, we were so thankful for a diagnosis (after the last 48 hours and really the last 5 weeks) a treatment plan and the hopes of a great recovery!  

It was hard to hold back the tears when they took him back to the operating room, but we were thankful that he was in good hands.  The surgery was fast, about an hour.  We couldn't wait to see him afterwards!  

This was the first picture right after they brought him back to our room.  I was one happy Mommy! 

The surgery was successful!  Here is his little tummy with his little scars.  Brett and I also have these exact same scars from having our gallbladder removed.  We all match now... we're the three scarred musketeers!

His tummy was so little.  His stomach had been storing food from quite a few old feedings, and it was so distended, so there was a lot that they cleaned out of there.  We had never seen his stomach so small.  

This is also a great pic of his boxing glove.  He kept rubbing his IV tubes against his face, so the neat peds trick was to put a diaper on his hand.  It worked really well!

Now it was time for us to eat! Thank goodness there was a Dominos in the hospital.  Wow! Food had never tasted so good!  No, I wasn't about to put him down to eat... he was going to stay in my arms as long as possible!

We were told that it can take days for a baby to be able to keep down their feedings after this surgery.  We were very blessed that Isaac was able to keep down his feedings, almost immediately.  Our goal was for him to keep down 2 consecutive 2oz. feedings before going home. After a few spit ups, he was able to keep down 5 consecutive feedings! Wow!  Before we knew it, we were discharged from the hospital!

Brett and I were completely exhausted and very excited to go home!!!

Recovering (a.k.a. snoozing)

It was amazing...we were able to lay him down on his floor gym without spitting up! When we put him down there, he was like, "Oh! How I've missed you!"

This pic melts my heart! 

Each day he is slowly eating more and continuing to recover.  We have had some challenges with pain management on days 3 & 4.   Nothing is harder than seeing your baby in pain.  Fortunately Brenners has been great, and they are working with us to make sure that his recovery is as quick as possible and with the least pain possible!

We felt the prayers during this last week... so thank you for all of your support!  God gave us a true peace during these challenges and strength to make it through.  This experience brought our marriage to a new place as well as strengthened our overwhelming love for our son!