Yesterday at 6pm when we were about to leave the hospital for the day, we found out that x-rays were ordered for Beckett’s abdomen. It turns out that when the radiologists were looking at his lung x-rays from that morning, they thought they saw some air towards his abdomen. The new x-rays showed that he had escaped air, which means that there was a perforation and action needed to be taken quickly. 

Within an hour, surgeons came and placed a tube in Beckett’s abdomen that would allow the air and anything else that had made its way into that pocket to escape. They told us their plan was to start him on antibiotics, give him a blood transfusion, and generally make him as strong as possible for an early morning surgery to open his abdomen and see what kind of damage there was, then fix it. 

All of this happening so quickly was a whirlwind and extremely overwhelming, especially after a seemingly good day. However, the fact that they discovered the perforation without Beckett showing signs of distress or negative symptoms was really reassuring. Them catching it without even looking for it was a nice reminder that our babies are in great hands. 

Beckett and Juliette both had a great night and Beckett’s surgery started first thing in the morning. Since they can’t move him to an OR, they sterilized his room and turned it into an OR. The surgeon found two perforations that were very close together, so they removed both sections and brought them to the surface. After a week or so, they will attach an ileostomy bag to those and they will stay in place for several months until he reaches about 2 kilos and they can do another surgery to attach the intestines together again. The surgeon said that the damage they found was on the better end of the spectrum for what they could have discovered. The cause was likely spontaneous perforation rather than necrotizing enterocolitis, which is a better case scenario. 

Things they’re immediately looking out for include general stability after surgery and infection, but he is on broad spectrum antibiotics that they started last night. Things they’ll eventually be looking out for are how he’s processing food and getting nutrients with interruptions to his intestines. Both stability during surgery and infection were big risks for his brain, but he handled surgery really well and the antibiotics they started last night should help so we just have to hope he stays healthy and happy. 

No long term impacts are expected from the perforation and surgery unless another perforation happens, which is always possible with preemies but not likely. He’s on morphine for pain and they’ll add other pain meds if he starts to get squirmy, so for the next day or so he’ll be pretty chill and can get some good rest which is exactly what he needs. It was a very big surgery for a very small boy. But they’ve been super happy with his blood pressure and heart rate and everything, so we just have to hope that continues!

During both surgeries, Juliette was a cooperative little angel and required almost no attention (which is very impressive considering a monitor is pretty much always going off between their two rooms). She must have known that brother needed the care in that moment. 

We are pretty exhausted after the stress of the last day and if there is no big news (fingers crossed), I’ll probably take a day off of updating tomorrow. It would be great to have a boring day, but we are quickly learning that NICU stays are a rollercoaster and we are at the mercy of these tiny peanuts and their complex bodies that are trying to get used to being outside the womb.