Home from Surgery

Sorry that I was unable to post until now.  We tried multiple attempts to get an update on here the past few days, but we were unsuccessful at getting blog access from the hospital computers and were unable to update via phone.  So we are just now able to update all of you.  

What a stressful couple of days we have had!  

But, we are happy to report that all went well with surgery and we are now home and doing good.  

We were discharged from the hospital Friday evening, May 4th, about 10 pm.

Waiting to go in for surgery. 

The hospital gown was a little large, but Declan looked so cute swimming in it.

I had no idea how nervous and emotional I would be when they took him from my arms to go into surgery.  What a scary moment for me.  I just love him so much and I could hardly stand to let him go!

Morning of Surgery...

Here is a little run-down of how everything went with surgery and some pictures.

Ladd's Band Surgery with Appendectomy

Our wonderful surgeon, Dr. Reynolds, was able to do the surgery laparoscopically.  

Declan has three very small incisions in his lower abdomen.  

They successfully removed his appendix and were able to re-situate his intestines by cutting his Ladd's Bands and spreading them out more evenly.

(There is a really great photo later that you can see of how his intestines looked before surgery and the bands)  

They also did a little exploratory surgery while they were in there... 

Dr. Reynolds had been concerned that he might not have a gallbladder, which thankfully she found.  She was also concerned about the health of his liver, which she was happy to report looked healthy and normal (other than the placement: which is centrally located in his upper abdomen).  She also took a look at his spleens and told us that after looking at them, she could see that they were fairly small in size which meant that they might not be fully functioning.  She chose not to remove the spleen, because she felt that some function was better than none.  Which means that for health purposes he will be treated throughout his life as if he did not have one.  You can live without a spleen, but it is very important during your developing years for your immune system.  So he will be given extra vaccines as a child that most children don't usually get because your spleen helps fight against certain diseases that are going to be a concern for him.  We were also told that if his temperature ever reaches 103 or above we are to take him to the Emergency Room immediately.  Just a few precautions like that.

The surgeon was able to take some really neat pictures of the surgery and some of the problems that were corrected.  These are going to be pretty cool for Declan to have when he gets older, since his anatomy is so unique.

***Warning*** 

If you are squeamish when it comes to blood, you might want to bypass the following photos.  We felt that they were very informative and really quite neat, so we wanted to share them with all of you.

SURGERY PICTURES:

Picture of Declan's Intestines before any re-situating was done.  

You can see how they are all bunched up and off to the side.

 This is a picture of the LADDS Bands... 

(Ladd's bands, sometimes called bands of Ladd is a fibrous stalk of peritoneal tissue that attaches the cecum to the abdominal wall, and creates an obstruction of the duodenum. This condition is found in malrotation of the intestine.

A surgical operation called a Ladd procedure is performed to alleviate intestinal malrotation. This procedure involves surgical division of Ladd's bands, widening of the small intestine's mesentery, performing an appendectomy and correctional placement of the cecum and colon.)

Cutting the Ladd's bands

 This is a picture of his centrally located liver 

(reddish pink mass in the upper middle part of the picture, surrounding the white tube looking thing) 

You can even see his gallbladder just under the liver 

(the round purple colored thing in the middle of the picture) 

 Cluster of spleens

You can see that they are all quite small in size

POST SURGERY:

Caught this sweet picture of Declan holding hands with Daddy while in recovery after surgery. 

 He still hadn't fully woken up yet.  His O2 (oxygen) levels were not very consistent, so we were in recovery for over 2 hours.  But thankfully they finally stabilized and we were able to go to our room in pediatrics with no complications.  

Trying to get some rest after surgery.  Not feeling too good :(
Isn't that a cute little tiger!  Some friends of ours gave it to Declan the day before surgery to help him feel better.  So sweet!

Finally feeling a little better and getting ready to come home.  YAY!

We are so thankful that our little boy is finally home and that his surgery is over and that it all went so well.  We feel truly blessed and know that he was watched over by our Loving Father in Heaven.

  

We are so blessed to have him in our lives!  What a sweet spirit he is :) He is so awesome and so strong.  I prayed for that for so long, that he would be strong, and he definitely is!  He is a fighter. 

He has completely won my heart and I am truly IN LOVE!

We are thankful for the many prayers in our behalf.

WE LOVE YOU DECLAN!