Monday, September 24, 2007

Surgery didn't go as expected

Well, I am posting tonight but not because Cainan didn't have to stay in the hospital. Mat decided to stay tonight. I am glad because I am really tired from being up since 4am. The good news - Cainan's lip is fully back together. The doctor wasn't sure at first if he could close it completely, but he was able to. And it looks really good. Let's hope it sticks this time. The bad news - he had an infection in there! Don't know how that happened. Most of the infection was in his nose. He hasn't been running a fever, we haven't seen any pussy drainange - no indication that it was infected. But when the doctor was in there, it was badly infected. Hmmm. Ugh. So when the doctor came out of surgery he explained that he needed to open the nose up a little so it wouldn't be perfect for now. And he is right - it is flatter than it was. But he assured me that he will correct that this spring. He needed to open the nose up some because he had to pack it since it was infected. Fun, fun! So now his nose and palate are full of gauze. We are all baffled. The doctor thinks maybe the first antibiotic Cainan was somehow resistant to it. The doctor has infection diseases involved to make sure they get the right antibiotics this time. He is on triple antibiotics - three biggies. We met with the infectious disease doctor and he said that the cultures he saw where not that bad. But they need to let them grow over the next 24-48 hours to see exactly what they are dealing with. Right now they are just hitting the infection as strong as possible and hoping it works. If not, they will have to reopen the whole lip, let the infection out, have that heal, and close the lip at another time. Let's hope it doesn't come to that! I can't imagine starting completely over. That would be so unfair to Cainan. We are hoping for the best and good news from the infection disease doctor tomorrow.
So he is in the ICU again. I want to get him moved out of there tomorrow, so I hope I am successful. We are looking at a 2 night minimum stay - possibly three. They want to give him all IV antibiotics and hit it strong. I can't tell you how disappointed I was when the doctor told me we would be staying for a few days. The hospital about drives you into madness with boredom - especially in the ICU. If we get moved to a regular room, we will at least have a playroom we can take him to.
So I am taking the girls to school tomorrow and then going back down so that Mat can come home and go to work. I will stay all day tomorrow and all night, and only if he has to stay yet another night will Mat come back down.
So that is our news. The lip is all sewn, the nose is undone slightly, packing is in. Oh, the nose plugs are out - so nice!!! He is breathing nicely through his nose now. Whoo hoo! He has got to be loving that! And they took out the sutures over the skin that was healed and cleaned it up, so the area between his nose and his lip is really looking nice. If I remember to take the camera, I will take a picture tomorrow.
So there won't be an update on the blog tomorrow, but I will update everyone once we get home from the hospital.
Thank you for all of your thoughts and prayers. They mean the world to us!

7 comments:

Elaine said...

I'm sending lots of positive energy your way! :) Hang in! You are doing great and we are crossing our fingers for the results you are hoping for.

Anonymous said...

Mat & Jennifer,

Wednesday night I really felt burdened for Cainan and shared with our class at church all that he had been through (that was before I read that day's blog where the lip first started to bleed). Everyone saw pictures of him because I printed the blog entries for Lynette. She shared those and we concentrated prayer on him and you folks. Please know we update our church family periodically and they are all praying for Cainan.

Poor guy! And poor Mom and Dad - you both must be exhausted. Don't lose heart - you know how critical it is for all of these battles to be fought while he is so young. Hopefully the few days in the hospital with all the extra concentrated meds will boost him enough that the healing will take place without complication this time.

Thanks for including us in list of guests to visit your blog. Everyday I check to see the latest.
And we do pray!

Love to all,
Joyce Cirigliano

Carole said...

Oh guys, I am so very sorry for this setback and just hope that the infection clears and he is able to heal quickly and you can all be home together soon! Know you are in our thoughts.

Anonymous said...

Poor guy, We sure do hope that everything heals up better this time! Keep your chins up! We will wait for good news soon!

Donna said...

Hi there guys,

I too am sorry for the setback BUT (I have to find the positive) if the lip hadn't bled you may not have known about the infection for a while and things might have been much worse. As they say, the Lord works in mysterious ways and he seems to be looking out for Cainan!

I am still praying daily for things to improve soon and for Cainan to heal completely this time. Mom & Dad, you are doing so great!

Try & get some rest...
Donna

Anonymous said...

Surely with all these prayers and good wishes, your spirits will be lifted and more importantly, God will hear us and answer them. Nanny

Marilyn, Paul, PJ, Chris & Lauren said...

So sorry to hear of the set back. I will keep all of you in my prayers. Best of luck with those antibiotics.

Marilyn

ds PJ
ds Chris
dd Lauren (from Chenzhou)