Thursday, August 5, 2010

surgery went well....

Oh my goodness....you all are amazing. The prayers, love and support that Juliet has been given today has gotten her through her surgery. She was in the O.R. for a little over 2 hours and is now back in the NICU settling in. She looks pretty good right now. She is still sedated, so we will see how she feels about everything once the sedation wears off - she may be a little more angry about the whole thing. :) The doctors are all telling us the next few days are going to be a little rough. She will probably get more swollen, need more ventilatory support, pain control, etc. Her body needs to recover from the trauma of the surgery. Hopefully, after that, she will be able to start to really heal and get stronger.

The surgeon was not quite sure what she was going to find when she opened up Juliet's abdomen. I won't get into too many of the details, but in summary, she found an obstruction in her intestine and a lot of "air and poo." Those were her exact words. ;) There was NOT an abcess on her liver, it was just a pocket from her intestines that was pressing down on her liver. They did have to remove a small section of Juliet's intestine. As a result, she has an ostomy until she can grow a little more and they can reconnect her intestines. Right now, they are just trying to give her intestines a rest so they can heal. She will need another surgery in a few months to reconnect her and possibly repair sections of her large intestine that were involved in this obstruction. This is just the beginning for her, but hopefully today's surgery was the "scariest".

Chris & I did get to hold Juliet this morning. It was WONDERFUL! Chris held her first and as soon as she got in his arms, she opened her eyes wide to look at him. Of course, I took pictures! We also did her 4 week "photo shoot" after she returned from surgery. I'll post those pictures later today.

Thanks again for all of your prayers and thoughts today. Juliet is stronger because of all of you.

3 comments:

  1. My daughter just shared with me about Juliet Grace and sent her blog website, so this was my first time reading your posts. First of all, you're a wonderful writer, and secondly, your post about her surgery touched my heart! I'll be joining those who are praying for all of you! God bless you!

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  2. Wow, so happy! The power of prayer is amazing! I have a whole army of prayer warriors helping us out. They have been behind Juliet and supporting you all the way! We continue to hope for all the best for her and the promise of tomorrow. She is on her way, I feel it. Should have named her "rambo"! She is a warrior herself, it seems. Glad the surgery went well and the findings were less than they thought originally. Many thanks to the wonderful doctors and nurses who are caring for her. She is a blessing as are they. Keep us posted. You can breath easier now. Love you.

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  3. Jess, The Guardian Angels hold Juliet in their strong but gentle embrace. She is a fighter. Love and prayers from your GUH friends.

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