Cannon’s Surgery:
Friday May 20, 2011 Cannon had surgery to repair his esophagus. The first part of his surgery was to disconnect the lower half of his esophagus from his trachea. We knew going into surgery that this was the very least they would be doing on this day. That part was a success! The next part was to put the upper and lower part of the esophagus together. All the weeks from birth leading up to surgery the doctors were not able to tell us whether or not this part of surgery would be able to be done. Cannon was born with quite a gap and they were not sure if they would have enough to bridge that gap. After a very long two and a half to three hour wait in the waiting room one of the surgeons finally came out to talk to us. He said that they had PLENTY of esophagus to work with and they were VERY pleased with how well the surgery went and how Cannon handled it. This is EXACTLY what we had been praying for all these weeks. We kept waiting on the doctor to say “but…..” And to our surprise we did not end up having to hear that! They said it could not have gone better!
He spent Friday and Saturday on the vent and by Sunday he had only a nasal cannula on low settings. On Monday he started getting 1 mL an hour of milk dripped through his gastric tube. On Wednesday his milk was upped and he started getting 2 mLs an hour through his gastric tube. Thursday he turned 8 weeks old, went off the nasal cannula, and started getting 3 mLs an hour of milk! By Friday he was getting 4 mLs an hour!
Cannon’s Swallow Study:
Exactly one week later on Friday May 27, 2011 Cannon had his swallow study. He needed this to make sure that before they started him on a bottle that he had no leaks at the surgery site. Trent and I got to watch on the screen as he swallowed the yucky barium! He took that stuff like a champ and went to town on that nasty stuff! It was really neat to watch it on the screen. He had NO leaks! Of course we already had a feeling of this since when they did his surgery it ended up not being as tight of a stretch to make the connection as originally thought. About 2 hours later he was able to get his chest tube out and start taking a bottle by mouth! The moment of truth…..
Cannon’s First Bottle:
He did great! Ok, so his first bottle was only a tiny 5 mL bottle, but hey…he’s got to start somewhere right?! It was a tiny little drop of milk, but he seemed to enjoy it! Hopefully he will get it all figured out soon. He’s not used to swallowing things all the way down just yet since he didn’t have to do that for the first 7 weeks of life, but he will get the hang of it. He’s doing very well. Friday was his first bottle (the tiny little 5 mL bottle) and by Saturday they increased the bottles to 7 mLs. And today he was having 10 mL bottles! He’s on cycles of feedings so he is still getting fed through his gastric tube along with the bottles. So today he went from having 3 bottles a day plus the g tube feeds to 4 bottles a day and g tube feeds. So far he is doing great with this. We just pray that as the volume of these feeds goes up he will continue to do great. And we also pray that he does not have horrible reflux. The doctors are optimistic and have been telling us the last few days that if everything goes well as they increase his calorie intake that he MIGHT get to go home in the next couple of weeks. Keep in mind that is BEST case scenario! It at least gives us something to hope for, but I also don’t want to get my hopes up either so I keep telling myself it could be way longer! Either way Trent and I want what is best for Cannon! So we are not pushing the doctors to send him home.
Trent and I greatly appreciate every single prayer that each person has sent up. We could not have gotten through all of this without God and prayers. He has definitely stood by our side and taken care and watched over Cannon through all of this. We hope to get home soon so we can slowly start introducing our son to the rest of our family and to our friends.
FINALLY 3 days before his surgery one of the drs. let us put a onesie on him. So this is his first outfit!
Not sure if you can see the drip drop of milk in this bottle, but it is his first bottle of 5 mLs of milk!
My 2 favorite guys!
He's got a decent little cry and it will get stronger as time goes on!
The first time Trent got to feed Cannon!
Much love~Christian
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