Ian and Ryan's Story - Back to the Hospital

Ian gained weight VERY slowly now that he wasn’t on IV fats and nutrition. At 3 months old Ian was 4lbs 8oz (November 22), he had gained 5oz in 33 days. Not much for a baby his age/weight. We met with Ian’s surgeon Dr. Dicken a few days later, he said Ian needed his re-sectomy (re-attach his intestines so he could poop in a diaper again) ASAP. Ian had a pre-op contrast enema (Test to see the intestines on an xray) on November 26, and was admitted to the Stollery NICU on November 28, 2013 (back in the NICU not PICU because Ian was so small). It was extremely hard to leave my baby at the hospital that day. I’m sure even at his young age Ian knew the sights and smells of the hospital, because when we walked into the hospital that morning he started to fuss and looked worried. I put him in the ‘giraffe crib’ and he started to cry. While the nurses poked and prodded him for an IV there was no room for me by his bed. I walked over to another part of the NICU and noticed a friend of mine who had just had a baby. He had come too early, and needed to be in the Stollery NICU. He was so cute laying there, so small and so perfect. We chatted for a bit. In the background I could hear my baby screaming while the nurses tried to find a good vein for the IV. After a bit I headed back to Ian’s crib, settled Ian down, chatted with the nurses, gave them an instruction sheet on how we had been changing his ostomy bag if they needed to change it that night, and set up the mobile we had bought to distract Ian. He looked so scared and sad. I left early in the afternoon, picked up Dylan, Lydia and Ryan from a friend who was babysitting that day for me, and headed home. Matthew went to visit Ian that evening. Since I had left the nurses couldn’t get Ian to settle down, he was crying and crying and he wouldn’t eat. When Matthew got there he was able to get Ian to eat a few milliliters and settle him down. 

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Ian in the NICU again. His new mobile from Daddy and Mommy distracted him momentarily.

Ian’s 3^rd surgery was easier on us than his 1^st and 2^nd one had been, because Ian was older, a little heavier, and I was excited I wouldn’t have to change ostomy bags anymore. The surgeon only expected Ian to be in the hospital for a week, 10 days at the most. Matthew and I arrived with Ryan early that morning. The nurses told us that Ian had had a rough night, crying and he wouldn’t eat, so they had given him something so he would sleep. We snuggled Ian for a bit, met with Dr. Dicken and walked Ian down to the operating room. We left him with the nurses just as they were wheeling him into the OR. We decided to walk to a nearby restaurant for lunch, since we knew the surgery would be at least that long, and if anything bad happened they had our cell numbers. Shortly after we got back to the hospital Dr. Dicken came to find us and let us know how it went. He explained the surgery had gone very well, he had cut a little more off Ian’s small intestine (now 10cm total) but the part attached to his large that wasn’t being used for the last few weeks had grown from 10 cm to 30! Dr. Dicken said they normally expect it to grow a little, but he had been surprised it had grown that much! He had also removed Ian’s appendix. For the next few day’s Ian’s recovery went well. In the afternoon on December 1^st, 2 days after the surgery, Ian was extubated (took the breathing tube out). He did well at first, then in the evening Ian started coughing and turning blue, poor guy! It hurt his incision when he coughed. Ian continued to have low oxygen throughout the night. In the morning they did an x-ray and found that his left lung was collapsed. It seemed Ian had caught a cold which now turned into pneumonia. They re-intubated him, changed his meds, and gave him some blood. He got better slowly.