2 weeks and 1 day post-op

So I figured out why I was getting so much slack for lack of posts - I forgot to actually post the one I sent in last week. Whoops! Oh well - today will be blog post overload day. Lalo continues to be doing great after surgery. His reflux has been SO much better (very nervous to put that in writing)! He spits up only a handful of times a day compared to 10-20 times a day. When he does get sick, it is usually just spit and meds that go into his stomach and maybe once a day stomach bile. He has been sleeping much better too, which is great for him. He, overall, just seems much stronger and more comfortable.

Most of this is attributable to the GJ tube, but I also wonder how long ago he reherniated and what impact that had. He has always really fought being on his side with his right side up, something we always attributed to the stroke. We thought getting him back into the swing of therapy after a major surgery and 9 days in the hospital would be really hard, but he doesn't seem to have lost much ground. As a matter of fact, now he does much better with his right side up. Maybe the fact that his bowels were back in his chest was putting pressure on his bad lung and made it harder to breath. Who knows? But we will be on the lookout if that happens again!

We just finished our follow up appointment with our surgeon. He said Lalo looks great and that for now we shouldn't change a thing. Hopefully a little break from the reflux will help Lalo rest and grow. For now we can focus on him developmentally and hopefully that will help his digestive system get in line. If we have trouble keeping the Jtube in place (they easily roll back into the stomach and he will always have to go back under to get it fixed), then we will fix his pylorus. We also have the surgeon and the GI doctors blessing to start working on oral feeds, so that will (hopefully) be our next set of challenges. Next week we start having an occupational therapist come out weekly. Lalo managed to snag his first taste of food over the weekend - whipped cream! Smart boy holds out for dessert. He also enjoyed gnawing on a baby carrot last night. Wish us luck on the next part of this journey and hopefully we can keep his reflux toned down for a while longer!

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