Surgery Update

Braxton got out of surgery a couple of hours ago. He got a colostomy. It became completely necessary as his condition over the last month has been so up and down. If we had waited, there could have been permanent damage to his colon.

Right now we are in his PICU room while he recovers. It is a pretty terrible sight. He is intubated, as he is not breathing on his own very much. The goal is to slowly drop the breaths per minute that the machine is giving him, while he increases the breaths per minute on his own.

In the past few minutes Braxton has been stirring more, and also becoming more aware of the annoying tube in his mouth. He is either really uncomfortable or in a lot of pain. He can't cry because of the tube, but his poor face is grimmacing and turning bright red. He is also flailing his arms in protest, which provides a whole new concern for him bumping his wound. So now his arms are tied down.

I guess I didn't fully understand what to expect with the surgery, beause I was surprised to see part of his actual colon exposed and raised above the skin on his abdomen. Not a fun sight. Tomorrow when the bleeding slows down he should get the actual bag that goes over the stoma.

The doctors say his condition is stable and he's doing fine. I'm not so fine.