Surgery for Eloise on Friday

On Friday our little Eloise is going to have surgery to repair 2 of her 3 hernias. When she was in the NICU, they identified that she has an inguinal hernia. Because of her weight, they were unable to do surgery while she was in the hospital. Upon coming home they told us if we saw it bulging out to push it back in and follow up with a surgical consult.

We never saw the hernia and neither did the pediatrician so we waited until she was a little bigger until getting a surgical consult which happened on Monday. It turned out that she has an inguinal hernia (groin), an umbilical hernia (belly button) and an epigastric hernia (above the belly button). The umbilical hernia will usually heal without surgery when she starts to walk and strengthens her stomach muscles so they are not worried about it. The inguinal hernia is fairly common and will not heal without surgery. The risk of this type of hernia in girls is that the ovary can protrude cutting off the blood supply so we decided to go ahead and get it repaired before it becomes a problem.

The timing of the surgery is critical because starting October 15th all the babies will be getting monthly shots (for 6 months) to protect against RSV and there is evidence that surgery at the same time as immunizations has an impact on the body's immune response. So our window of getting this surgery done before next spring is very narrow.

My biggest concern is that she will be under general anesthesia and therefore require a ventilator. Even though all the babies are 3 1/2 months old meaning 1 1/2 months old adjusted age, their lungs are still not the same as a 1 1/2 month old baby and will not really catch up until the babies are about 2 years old. Any insult to the lungs is very worrisome. But, we think the benefit of doing it now outweighs the risk of an decreased blood supply to her ovaries or bowels.

I think Friday morning is going to be pure torture for Eloise, not because of the surgery but because she can't eat. The surgery is scheduled for 1:00 pm, we need to be there at 11:00 am and she can't eat past 5:00 am. We are are talking about my little pig who eats every 3 hours on the dot and squeals and snorts and screams if you are 5 minutes late. She is one who eats anywhere from 6-9.5 ounces every 3 hours. She eats the amount of a 6 month old. This is not going to be good.

She will most likely spend the night on Friday and then will be discharged on Saturday morning. I'm sure she will be mad as a hornet about the whole thing. She is already mad because I have started to cut back on their 2 am feedings in an attempt to eliminate that one all together. I think this surgery will put those plans on hold for a while.

Beckett and Adeline are thanking her for putting the 2 AM feeding elimination on hold for the time being.

This will be the first time since they came home they will be sleeping without her so they were practicing (Beckett was faking it).

She has always been a tough little cookie since the day she was born so we are sure she will come through with flying colors and charm the pants off of every person in the hospital. Keep her in your thoughts on Friday!