Surgery Consult & Blood Transfusion

I met with the surgeon who will be performing Blake's hernia surgery today. He was great, very informative and detailed about what is going to happen.

I guess when babies are in the womb, boy baby testicles are formed inside of the abdomen and at around 7 or 8 months gestation they drop down through a tube into the scrotum, after that happens the tube is suppose to seal off closing the abdomen from the male anatomy. Since Blake was born before that tube was sealed shut his bowels over time have fallen down that tube and are being compressed. This is a very common thing happening in 30% of preemies and not limited to males. We are told to keep an extra close eye on Leah now, it apparently can be a family thing.

The reason why it is so important for him to have his surgery right away is that the tube can start to close around the bowel and cutting off blood flow to that area, which would be not good. They will check the other side while there are there and if it needs to be done they will also do that at the same time. There is also a 30% chance that his testicle could be damaged, but we won't know that for 1 year depending on its growth.

So surgery is first thing Thursday morning and it shouldn't take that long. The total hospital stay is 3 hours and the surgeon told me it should not impact his hospital stay at all, however the dr's over at the PLC are not willing to agree to that at this point...We will have to re-evaluate that Friday after we have a better idea of how he is feeling..

After all of that was over I went over to the Peter Lougheed to see them and was told that Blake requires a blood transfusion before his surgery...Gahhhhhhh great something else to think about...I guess they did his routine before surgery bloodwork today that revealed he doesn't have enough volume of blood and would need the blood transfusion before he can have his surgery...

So he is right now as I type this having his transfusion...I have some mixed emotions about this..I'm not sure why...perhaps its because its just making me emotional to have just one more thing, or maybe because its blood from another human being pumped into my tiny boy. I know these blood donors are wonderful, generous people but you can't help but think of those stories of tainted blood etc...blahhhh...They are checking his blood pressure and vital signs every 15 minutes over the course of the 4 hours that it takes for the blood to be transfused intervenously. I know this is a necessary thing for him in order to have his surgery which we know he needs...I'm sure it will all be fine...

Thats its, the story of the day..Oh and he had a brady last night and today :( 1 more week for sure!!