3:00pm: We are finally back in Reid's room and he looks good. Well, as good as you can look with a tube down your throat and a bunch of incisions on your body.

We met with the doctor and they are planning on pushing Reid pretty hard and plan on extubating him tomorrow. His CO2 gas tests were good (39), his O2 is back down to 40% (which is where it was pre-op... it was at 50% during surgery), his vent rate (breaths per minute) is at 37 (doctor was expecting somewhere in the low 50s - so this is a good thing) and his PEEP (pressure support) is at 6. They are going to wean pretty heavily once he starts waking up and they plan on extubating when he is at about 25 breaths per minute. And when weaned, he will be put on 8 liter flow (2 above what he went into surgery with).

Feeds will resume within the next 48 hours and they will gradually increase his feeds over a couple of days before he is back up to full feeds. They want to make sure that his stomach is tolerating the feeds before going all the way up.

All in all, he had a total of 7 incisions: 2 for his hernias (just below where his diaper comes up to), 1 in his belly button and 4 in the abdomen (1 on each side and two near the middle). One of the incisions they used for the nissen procedure is actually where his g-tube was placed.

Before surgery, they had to place an arterial line in his femural artery in his thigh. They tried in his arms and had no luck. Because this is not an ideal place to have a line, they will pull it as soon as possible - most likely when they try extubation tomorrow.

During the nissen procedure, they were able to see that Reid's anatomy was normal in the sense that his esophagus was of proper length and his stomach was normal. They part that they found that was most likely the root of the reflux was the esophageal hiatus was a little loose. This is the natural opening in the diaphram that creates a sphincter to prevent stomach contents from coming up. They tightened this up with a suture.

Anyway, the surgery is over and it is time for recovery. His hernia repair is expected to be fairly swollen and bruised over the next few days and will take a couple of weeks to come back to normal. The other wounds should heal fairly well and pretty quick. We are excited about the possible extubation tomorrow and grateful that they want to push Reid. The sooner he is off the vent, the sooner we can focus on healing his lungs. He will continue to get a stress dose of hydrocortisone over the next few days that will eventually be phased out and put back on the prednisone. Once on the prednisone again, they will start the gradual weaning of that (as they were pre-surgery).

So far, so good. Tonight will be a little more interesting as he starts to wake up. Right now, he is moving his fingers and toes and the occasional shoulder shrug. We thank God that he has gotten us through these procedures and everything went as planned. We also thank everyone for their continued prayers and support - they are paying off! Mom and dad, thank you for coming down and hanging out with us in the waiting room today and glad that you were able to see Reid this afternoon.

Well, I am going to wrap this post up but will leave you with some pictures of Reid:










12:45pm: Reid is done! He did well and is on his way back to his room. We are going to go grab some lunch and then visit Reid. I will post more details in a little bit... but did want to post that everything went great!

12:00pm: Just got an update from the nurse and said Reid has about another hour and a half to go. They are still working on the nissen and will continue on with the g-tube afterwards. They are also going to go ahead and give him a blood transfusion as his blood counts were a little low. Not that he has lost a lot of blood in the procedure, but his counts were on the lower side before they started.

10:45am: They just finished with the hernia repair and are now moving onto the nissen procedure. The hernia repair took just under an hour and Reid is doing just fine.

9:40am: Almost exactly 45 minutes after they took Reid back, the nurse called to let us know that the prep work went as planned and that he was very stable. His intubation went well and the surgeon was getting to start.

9:15am: The OR came to get Reid around 8:45 and we said our goodbye's shortly before 9. We met with the attending surgeon, anesthetist and his surgical nurse shortly before he was wheeled into the OR to explain how today was going to work. As soon as they get him in the room, they are going to give him some gas to knock him out before they start with the intubation, the arterial line and the IVs. He won't feel a thing. Once the prep work is complete (within an hour), they will start with the right hernia (which is the worst of the two) and then move onto the left. They wanted to do these first as this is what he originally came to Egleston for... and if everything was going smoothly as planned, they would continue with the nissen and then the g-tube.

We are now in the waiting room patiently waiting to hear back from the nurse. She will call as soon as surgery starts to let us know the prep work was completed and then will call about every hour afterwards to let us know that things are going OK. So, including the prep time, we are looking at a 4 hour procedure and will need to wait about another hour after surgery before we will be able to see him.

We did have one bit of good news this morning that we didn't find out yesterday, but they weaned his flow to 6 liters yesterday. The doctors are pleased to see the progress that he is making and feel a little more confident about where we stand.

And since I have a little time to kill in the waiting room, here are a few pictures from last night and this morning.

Tough Cookie: we bought this outfit for him before he was transported here back in December for his surgeries. This picture was taken last night and Reid is looking up at his mom who is holding him:



Picture of Reid this morning when we first got to the NICU. He is naked, swaddled, ready for surgery and catching a quick catnap with his beloved dragon wubbabub:



The first pictures below is when the OR came to get him and right before Kristen had to put him in the transport isolette. The second picture is of Reid in the OR holding room seconds before being wheeled back to his sterile operating room. this is where we kissed him good luck.





8:00am: the OR just called and said that it would probably be about an hour before they started on Reid as they were running a little behind on their first patient. Kristen is holding him right now and he is, for the most part, asleep. There are a couple times where he starts sucking on nothing and is making a funny noise so we are getting a few chuckles out of it.

Reid had a decent night last night. His hernias came out around 10:30 last night and he woke up screaming again, but was able to sleep peacefully the rest of the night. And a repeat of the night before, his CO2 was 52. Oxygen is holding at 40% (he is not allowed to go below 40 though).

For the most part, we are ready for today and we feel confident. Just not fun to think about what Reid is going to go through over the next few days. We remind ourselves that he will remain strong and get through this as he has done before.

6:00am: it is hard to believe that six months ago we welcomed Reid into this world. It has been a long ride getting to where we are today, but some of the happiest days of my life have come thanks to this little man. Happy 6 month birthday buddy!!