UPDATE: PAR IS OUT OF SURGERY AND DOING FINE...

Our little boy is out of surgery—praise God! Everything went fine—only a few surprises. They finished around 12:15 am and told us Dr. Kays would be out in a little while to talk to us and then we would get to see him. Dr. Kays didn’t come out until 1:15am—we (Rusty, me and our parents) went into the conference room for the debriefing.

First, Dr. Kays told us that Par remained stable the entire time and tolerated everything (anesthesia,etc.) very well. When he got in there he found the stomach, bowel, colon, spleen and kidney up there. The kidney was one of the surprises and Dr. Kays explained that the lack of diaphragm in the back allowed the kidney to slide right on up there. This is a surprise because typically the back of the diaphragm is in tact and the hole is more towards the front, but with Par, the opposite is true. We know his kidneys have been working fine because he is the best pee-er in the NICU and Dr. Kays said the kidney doesn’t care where it is.

The next surprise is the size of his stomach. Dr. Kays explained that his stomach is large and this is possibly due to some of the medicine he’s been on recently for his hypertension—it has caused a lot of secretions and has filled up the stomach causing it to enlarge. This is a problem because fitting everything back into the abdomen is already a difficult task because nothing has been there—but now with the stomach enlarged it poses danger for other organs—namely the intestines. He said the stomach seems “tight” and he would closely monitor it for the next 12 hours. The risk with the intestines is that they can die if the stomach doesn’t give them enough room. The remedy is for Dr. Kays to open Par up again (in the next 12 hours) and put in a Gore-Tex patch on his abdomen to allow more room. This is risky because of infections and such, which is why he didn’t go ahead and do it. That being said, he did repair Par’s hernia with a Gore-Tex patch—it is the “snowcone” style because of the shape. Because of the lack of diaphragm (only 35-40% or so) on the left side, he stitched it to two sides of the diaphragm and then sewed it to the ribs and muscle. This is a common practice with lack of diaphragm because it is the only option to repair it and close the hole. There are risks of re-herniating with the patch, but that is down the road and not a huge problem. Dr. Kays gave us a piece of the Gore-Tex that the patch inside Par was cut from—just a plain white strip of soft material—it is hard to believe this is “all it takes” to save our baby boy.



During the discussion, in classic Kays form, he drew a diagram of everything while he explained it to us. We were happy to hear that he found a fair sized left long (about 50-60% of a normal size)—we are praying it has developed enough for Par to breeze through the “breathing part” of his recovery.



Par still looks absolutely beautiful to us and we have included a picture of him right after surgery. We don’t want anyone to be offended because it is a pretty nasty little incision—but we also remember searching the internet for info on CDH when we first found out and this type thing is helpful for expectant parents to see. Plus, he looks fine—no grimacing or anything like that—we are so proud of him—I really can’t complain about my c-section anymore!


We are going to go in one more time to tell our baby goodnight and that we love him and then leave him to rest. I still have to pump and we need to rest too so we can visit him early in the morning. We ask that you will join us in praying for his stomach to fit perfectly in his abdomen and that his intestines will remain working properly so Dr. Kays won’t have to operate on him again. Also, that little Par won’t be too uncomfortable as the major anesthesia wears off. Finally, we ask that you will pray for Dr. Kays and the surgery he is currently doing for another little baby—he left us at 1:45 am to go operate again—I don’t know how he does it.

We thank you for all of your strength in praying for our little boy. We again give glory to God for the miracle of Philip Andrew and everything he has shown us so far about love—he truly is a precious little baby.
Liz, Rusty & Par