Finally Home
Finally, Alexander, Kelvin and I are home for the first time all together. Alexander's operation was on the 19th November. They took a piece of his small bowel and grafted it on a pedicle up behind his stomach and attached it between the gap between his Oesophagus and stomach. The operation took 8 hours in total. He spent 3 days in intensive care with various drips, arterial lines, a ventilator, chest drain and covered in dressings, before being moved back to the ward to recover fully. Once he was tolerating feeds through his gastrostomy tube, we were finally able to give him a bottle for the first time. He took to it like a duck to water! The idea is to start off with small bottle feeds and then give him the rest of his feed through his gastrostomy tube until he is able to take a whole feed through his bottle.
On Tuesday we got the good news that we would be able to take him home for the first time and so Wednesday saw us tucked up in the back of my dad's car on the way back to Tiverton. You know I can't quite believe I have him home. It all seems so surreal. We still have a lot on our plate. He still has his stoma and colostomy bag, and his gastrostomy tube, and he is on various medications, meaning our kitchen has turned into a temporary pharmacy with the amount of syringes and medicines, but it's home. Finally.
Alexander has been suprisingly settled considering his surroundings are much quieter than his previous ones. He doesn't quite like his cot bed yet so we're glad we kept the moses basket. Feed wise he is managing 60 ml via a bottle - approximately half of his feed, before he falls asleep and leaves me to give him the rest through his tube, but it's a great achievement considering his surgeon said it would be a slow and painful task requiring a lot of patience.
Kelvin and I are tired, but we are managing which is the best possible situation. Alexander will be going back to Bristol for a check-up in 8 weeks time - just for a day and then a few months later, they will start the surgery on his bowel and bottom. It's not over by a long shot, but we're home at least, with a fantastic network of health professionals keeping an eye on everything.
On Tuesday we got the good news that we would be able to take him home for the first time and so Wednesday saw us tucked up in the back of my dad's car on the way back to Tiverton. You know I can't quite believe I have him home. It all seems so surreal. We still have a lot on our plate. He still has his stoma and colostomy bag, and his gastrostomy tube, and he is on various medications, meaning our kitchen has turned into a temporary pharmacy with the amount of syringes and medicines, but it's home. Finally.
Alexander has been suprisingly settled considering his surroundings are much quieter than his previous ones. He doesn't quite like his cot bed yet so we're glad we kept the moses basket. Feed wise he is managing 60 ml via a bottle - approximately half of his feed, before he falls asleep and leaves me to give him the rest through his tube, but it's a great achievement considering his surgeon said it would be a slow and painful task requiring a lot of patience.
Kelvin and I are tired, but we are managing which is the best possible situation. Alexander will be going back to Bristol for a check-up in 8 weeks time - just for a day and then a few months later, they will start the surgery on his bowel and bottom. It's not over by a long shot, but we're home at least, with a fantastic network of health professionals keeping an eye on everything.