Another Surgery

Well after much progress we have had to take a few steps back. Juliana has not been tolerating her feedings any more. An x-ray was done of her belly and there is free air surrounding her intenstines. On Monday she went in for another abdominal exploration. They found tons of NEC (Necrotizing Enterocolitis) and had to perform an ostomy. What does this all mean? Necrosis is death of tissue. NEC, which is most common in preemies, is the necrosis of the tissues in the intenstines. As a result a perforation was formed. This perforation needed to be closed. Rather than simply fuse together the areas of the intenstines where the perforation existed, the ends are fused to the abdominal wall. This is done because there is still a chance that if they had fused together the ends were the perforation was removed, the tissues may still be to sick and another perforation will occur. Once the tissues are better they will reverse the ostomy, but this won't happen for at least a couple of months.

Juliana is also fighting infections. From the blood cultures drawn she is growing two different bugs. Her peripherally inserted central catheter was removed as this was thought to be a source of the infection. Unfortunately a culture was not able to be drawn from this line and we will never know for sure. In the meantime with all that is going on in her intestines and the fluid that she will need in place of her feedings along with the medications she is receiving a central line will have to be surgically placed. This line unlike a standard perpheral iv can stay in place for much longer (like 6-8 weeks) for as long as it does not get infected.

Some of her medications have been stopped like the Actigall for her liver function and the Dexzmethisone (steroids) for the inflamation in her lungs. She is currently taking two antibiotics Meropenim and Vancomycin. She is also receiving a morphine drip for pain and to keep her comfortable. She may be put back on Dopamine which helps to regulate her blood pressure but so far she has not needed it.

As far as her respiratory goes, she will not be extubated any time soon. In fact they have put her back on the oscillator (high frequency ventilator). I am not happy at all to see this machine back in our lives again. It is very noisy and shakes the baby as it forces short burst of air into her lungs. I hope we can make it through this. It's been a really rough 24 hours now. I am hoping we can get through all of this bad stuff quickly so we can move on to getting better. Please keep our family and especially Juliana in your prayers.