Spence has made it through surgery and is doing well. He will be zonked out for the next two days due to how painful this surgery is. The Nurse Practitioner Dea said that she likes to keep the babies comfortable after surgery so I shouldn't be surprised if he isn't very active for the next few days. They are thinking they may have to put him on an Oscillator breathing machine. The reason they may need to put him on a larger machine is due to the fact that his intestines are inflamed and are putting pressure on his tiny diaphragm, making it hard for Spence to breath. He is currently on an antibiotic to reduce the risk of infection and morphine to reduce the pain from the surgery. Dea said he will be uncomfortable for a little while. Dea seems to think that Spence wont have to be on the Oscillator for to long, she is predicting it will only be for the next 48 hours or until the inflammation in the intestine is gone. Hopefully he wont have any trouble coming off the Oscillator back onto the Vent. After speaking with Spence's nurse Erin and the Nurse Practitioner (Dea) after he is done with this new course of antibiotics they will hopefully be able to get him on some steroids to have him come off the Vent completely .. I am thankful for your continued prayers on Spence's behalf, he is really going to need them now to help him get through this recovery process. Thank you so much for all of the love ..

Tomorrow morning at 7:30 am Spence will be headed down to surgery. Doctor Glasser has decided that Spence is big enough and stable enough to perform the surgery needed to put Spence's intestine back together. While they are closing his Ostomy they will also be doing Spence's circumcision. We are really happy Doctor Glasser is the one performing the surgery on Spence, he is really nice and he takes his time. I will let you know how our little man does after his surgery..

I spoke with Nurse Cyndi today and she said that he is being a bit of a stinker. He is all over the place on the rate for the Vent, he has been anywhere from 15 on his rate back up to 30. Spence's O2% is in the upper 30's - 40's range. Doctor Lal is becoming rather frustrated with our little Yo-Yo, they are hoping to get him off the Vent soon due to the increased damage to his lungs the longer he stays on it. They are planning to start him on another round of steroids as soon as he is done with his antibiotics, which will be on the 10th. The Doctor's and Nurse's are hopeful that since Spence had such a great response to the Steroids last time, that this round will be just as beneficial. Poor little Spence is a bit swollen with water weight due to the fact that preemies don't do well with extra fluids. They are going to start giving him a diuretic every other day to help get the water weight off. They have also taken an x-ray's of Spence's lungs today and they seem to be a bit cloudy. The cloudiness could be from one of two things, either his lungs are a bit wet or it could be showing the scarring of the lung due to the Vent. This is another reason why they are giving Spence the diuretic. Not only will it help with the water weight, but it will also help dry up the lungs if they are wet. Spence is doing well with his feedings, he is up to 8 cc's. Hopefully soon he will be off the Vent and than they can work on getting him used to eating out of a bottle. Thank you for your continued prayers on our behalf. We truly appreciate each and every one of you.

Today Spence is having a good day, his Vent setting is 30 and his O2 % is in the 40-50% range. The Nurse Practitioner Dea told me yesterday that they are going to have to do another round of Steroids to get little Spence off the Vent. The good thing is Spence did really well the last time on the Steroids so there is no reason to think he wont do well again. Hopefully they will have him off the vent in a week or two, it just depends on him and how well he takes to the Steroids. They have also seen an improvement in his intestine. Spence's little intestines aren't as dilated and he is putting out a tiny amount of stool from his Ostomy. Since his tummy is looking better Doctor Gamble has decided that she would like to challenge him with some feedings to see how he does. They have started his feedings at 2cc's every 3 hours. So far he has had one residual from his feeding last night, but Spence's Doctor and Nurse Cyndi are hopeful that he will do well. It might just take some time for him to get used to eating again, since his little tummy hasn't had to worry about digesting anything for a couple of weeks now. Spence is now weighing in at 3 pounds 14 ounces, the Nurse last night said that he has started to retain some fluid so his weight last night was 4 pounds 2 ounces. They will most likely give him a diuretic treatment to get rid of some of the water weight. Thank you for your prayers on our behalf. We love each and every one of you and are grateful to have you all in our lives.

Well I just spoke with Nurse Nancy and Spence is doing much better on the Vent. His rate is at 20 and his O2% is in the 40's. He is resting much better being on the Vent. They did the Ultrasound on Spence's little boy parts and found that he has a large Hydroseal, which we are hoping will resolve itself by absorbing back into the body. If the Hydroseal doesn't absorb they will have to do minor surgery to repair it. There is still no output in his ostomy, and from the x-ray they took of his little belly this morning his intestines look a little distended. The Nurse's and Doctor's are going to keep a close eye on both issues. Hopefully everything will get better soon. I will try to get some pictures of him tonight when we go...

from mommy

Well I had great news, but it seems that it was short lived... Last night they had Spence off the Vent and back on the Vapotherm, he was on 5 liters and his O2 % was in the 60% range. I spoke with Nurse Nancy this morning and she informed me that he was unable to stay on the Vapotherm, they tried him on the Cpap and he was unsuccessfull with that as well. Nancy said that his O2 % was in the 100's and he was still D-sating. So as of this morning around 9am he was put back on the Vent. Nurse Nancy was also doing his assesment this morning and while she was checking his little boy parts she noticed that his little scrotum was very hard, she called in the Doctor who called in the Surgeon. They looked at it and they seem to think it could be one of two things, either it is a hydroseal, which they can fix when he is a little bit older with surgery, or it could be his intestine (hurnia) (sp?) which they will have to do surgery today to fix. Also his little bowels are making hypoactive (infrequent) sounds and he is still not making any stool. Our little Spence is having a rough spot right now but I know he will get through it all. Thank you so much for your prayers on his behalf. We love all of you !!

His infection is going away with the help of some really good antibiotics. They have his water weight under control and he is looking more like our little Spence. Spence is weighing in at 3 pounds 10 ounces and is almost 15 inches long... Spence's tummy trouble is getting better because he is doing more breathing on his own. His rate is at 15 and his O2 concentration is in the 40% range. Spence's little intestines are still filled with some extra air, so they have a tube down there helping to get rid of it. Spence is also having some trouble putting out stool from his ostomy, Doctor Atkins was in there yesterday with Spence and was manipulating the Stoma (sp?) and was able to get a little bit of stool out. We will just have to wait and see what they decide, but for right now they are just going to keep taking x-rays to keep an eye on it. So far they don't see anything causing a blockage. Thank you for all the prayers on Spence's behalf, we are truly blessed to have so many wonderful people in his corner. We love you all !!! Have a great day..