Baby Ethan Update - 8/21

Hello again everyone!

So yesterday, our little guy went under the knife again.

You remember that infection we talked about a little bit ago that we could not find? Remember those stomas we also talked about that weren't doing much? Well, it is all interconnected.

He had a condition called Stoma Necrosis. Both of his stomas had died. The skin on the stomas should have looked pink like the inside of your mouth. His were...black! And not producing anything.

His surgeon took a look at him two days ago and said that surgery was a go. So after almost 5 hours of waiting the verdict was in. He did have to cut off both stomas and rebuild them, but also almost 6" of dying intestine as well. The section of intestine that was removed was the part that extracts vitamin B12 from foods. But in the end this is what was best for him.

So now we push the reset button on his progress. He is back on his ventilator, he is back on very high levels of fentanyl, he is again in very critical condition.

This was a seemingly small setback, but it's one that will effect him his entire life.

Just to give you an idea of how strong he is, the neonatologist gave him his pain meds correct for his size for surgery, and the anesthesiologist gave him the correct amount of anesthesia for his size and this poor little guy just would not fall asleep. They ended up giving him almost 1 1/2 the amount of medicine he was supposed to receive just to get him to fall asleep for surgery.

Anyway, that is where we stand today! We will let you all know more when we know more. We go to see him every day at noon, we receive calls from the neonatologist every morning, and we call every night at midnight. The idea here is that we try to stay on top of all this information to keep all of you updated as well!

Take care for now, and we will chat soon!

- Kip, Tia, Riley, and Baby Ethan -