I know I have been a bit ambiguous about the medical details that have been going on with Miss Kelcie. I think I had to somewhat negotiate this process in regards to sharing details. Many of you have asked and I appreciate the interest. Read on if you are interested - Aside from tackling the challenges common with a preemie at 32 weeks (immature lungs, a heart murmur), Kelcies greatest vice has been a serious intestinal infection called Necrotizing Enterocolitis (NEC) and she has had to battle it twice. She developed it on Day 7 but recovered from it without serious complications. On Day 25, we were told that she had developed it again. This time, she just was not getting better like she had the first time. The doctors decided surgery was necessary. What they found was heartbreaking. She had a small perforation in her bowel. However, her body tried to fight/contain the perforation by walling off the leak by basically accordianing her intestines up against the leak, which made the perforation undetectable prior to surgery. For days, the stuff in her bowels was leaking into her entire system. The surgeon said straightening out her intestines was like pulling apart wet tissue paper without ripping it. Our baby had the long process of recovering from major bowel surgery as well as fighting the illness that was now all in her system. I will not cover up how gravely ill she was. That was not enough, apparently. The infection of the bowel and the IV fluids made her stomach very distended after the surgery. She was not able to hold the sutures from the surgery. Her incision location opened up to a wound a bit smaller than my palm in which her insides were basically exposed. She is doing better - the wound is about 1/3 of the size, she is off all of the antibiotics completely, and they will resume feeding her soon. She will need a second surgery to reattach her bowel area correctly. Even with all of this, the doctors are cautiously optimistic that she will not have any serious long-term complications from this. Why share all of this on Facebook? I think there are two reasons that I have been so public with Kelcies story. This is the time that new mommies are sharing their babies with the world. I cant do that just yet in the typical way so this helps me to fill that innate desire. I will admit that it is self-indulgent but I am proud of her. Second, I will admit that I have been scared, sad, overwhelmed, angry and weak in this process. It helps to share and read the statements of support. I guess I figured if folks were not interested, they would just bypass reading the postings. So, we are hoping that she will be done with all of this by the beginning of July. We are hoping the doctors can give us a bit more of a timeframe after another week of her wound healing.
Posted on: Mon, 12 May 2014 13:47:40 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015