Surgery #2

So, Jim and I talked about Finn's hernia surgery last night. We just were not feeling that waiting was the answer. Upon some excellent advice from Jim's aunt DeAnn, who happens to be a nurse, we decided I would talk with a doctor who knows Finn a little better than the nurse practitioner from yesterday. So, when I got there, I met with Dr. Pylipow (she has rounded on Finn for two weeks). We discussed the surgery and our concerns. She really listened to me, which felt good. The bottom line is that Jim and I found far more pros to having the surgery now rather than later and felt that the surgeon was just arbitrarily making his recommendation. Dr. Pylipow said that the issue of recurrence was exaggerated by the surgeon and that hernias can happen (or reoccur) regardless if somebody was a preemie or not. She also said that they have done the surgery on far sicker babies than Finn and she thought Finn would do fine under anesthesia and with recovery. Once she heard my comments and thoughts, she agreed that having the surgery now was completely acceptable and doable.

So, Finn is having his hernia surgery next week! As of right now, he is scheduled for Wednesday, March 25 at 1:00pm. There is a chance that he could be bumped up to Monday, but we will know for sure tomorrow. We are still waiting to hear if they can do his circumcision at the same time at his hernia surgery (not sure if insurance will cover it if a surgeon does it versus the regular doctor). We just want him to have to recover once from both procedures.

Don't get me wrong, I don't want Finn to have to need this surgery at all, but he has the hernia and it needs to be fixed. They will also check the right side to make sure there isn't any problems with that. Yeah, one less thing to have to worry about in the future (like the doctor said about his PDA ligation, we're just checking another thing off the list). Was this our first test as Finn's advocates? If so, I hope we pass(ed).

Finn had a much better day today than he did yesterday. His girth was measuring 32 yesterday and it measured 28.5 today (that means his tummy was much smaller today!). He was still a little uncomfortable and clearly had some gas issues today, but nothing like yesterday. No tears on either of our parts, which is always a good thing. And he even pooped without a suppository a few times today! Yeah.

Finn hardly ever has spells any more...except when he is eating! It is almost like clock work: he starts eating and about 7 minutes later, his heart rate and oxygen levels fall. It is frustrating, but I'm told very common with preemie babies (they don't even "count" them as real spells). It just throws another wrench into the feeding issue, but so far, he is gaining weight and I don't think he has this problem when he bottle feeds, so that is good. Just makes for a watchful and nervous mom during breast feeding! The nurses aren't concerned, but I hate seeing his face go gray and the monitors freak out! They keep telling me that eventually he will completely out grow the spells altogether. That day won't come soon enough for me!

This is day 74 of Finn's hospital stay.