Unfortunately, Sunday brought the biggest complication that Juliet has faced. Her intestine perforated and she needed surgery to place 2 drains into her abdomen to release the free air that was now in her abdominal cavity. As a result of her perforation/surgery, her body went into slight shock. She required much more ventilatory support, medicine for her blood pressure, and of course several antibiotics. They also started a Fentanyl drip for pain and some light sedation. Her kidney function slowed (but has now returned to normal).
Her biggest risk right now is infection. She now has a blood infection, as a result of her perforation. Tomorrow, she will have a lumbar puncture to make sure the infection hasn't spread and caused meningitis. Hopefully, the many antibiotics she is on will fight this infection quickly without too many more complications. I'm still waiting to talk to the surgeons to grasp their plan for her. She won't be given any breastmilk for several weeks while her intestine is healing. Beyond that, I am unsure of the next steps.
Today, she seems to be feeling a little better - she's a little more active. They have been able to decrease her ventilatory support a little bit. She no longer needs the blood pressure medicine and her kidneys are back to normal. Now that they know the specific bacteria that is growing in her blood (enterobacter), they have stopped some of the antibiotics that aren't as effective on that specific bacteria. Let's just keep our fingers crossed for tomorrow's test.
The picture below is actually from Friday. She just looked so "comfy"! I hope that she will look like this again very soon!
Thank you all SO much for your birthday wishes, cards, packages, cupcakes!, phone calls, texts, emails, etc. etc. It made my day a little bit better knowing how many people were thinking of us. We have such amazing friends and family! I tell Juliet every day how lucky she is to have so many people pulling for her.
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