Updates on Garrett

 Garrett was discharged tonight and is now back home with everyone! It was a successful surgery that we hope that will stop his stoma from prolapsing and allow him to get back to chasing his brother,  playing soccer  and   enjoying recess with his friends.  

Garrett is out of surgery. The stoma revision was successful and he is sleeping off the sedatives. 

  Garrett’s about to go into the OR.  He’s in good spirits. Elizabeth from Child Life stopped by and gave him a new LEGO set. His stuffies, Tail and Peligi, are keeping him company.  Garrett’s mainly looking forward to eating.  More to come...

Garrett's surgery is set for today, we just don't know the time yet.  Which is really frustrating Garrett because he's HUNGRY! He hasn't eaten since lunchtime yesterday and is on NPO until the operation. So, when he comes out the other side, he'll be ravenous and probably still unable to eat for 12-24 hours post-op because they'll keep him on fluids and clear foods (jello, which he hates, chicken broth, which he also hates) to watch the stoma output. I haven't told him this last part, since he keeps asking for candy and will probably kill the messenger. I'll let the nurses take that bullet. Unlike other stays, Garrett is in pretty good shape coming in. He's put weight on, his muscles are strong again, and he's happy. So, we're hopeful that the stoma revision secures his small intestine and he stops having prolapses when he runs and plays. More to come...

Update: Garrett was sedated and the surgeon was able to manipulate and reduce his stoma. He’s going to be admitted and they’re moving up his revision surgery to tomorrow. He’s awake now and a little out of it. —— Garrett’s in the emergency department with a severely prolapsed stoma   He was already scheduled for surgery this Thursday to have his stoma revised, as he has been prolapsing whenever he does any running or physical activity. Being six, he’s active a lot, so 1-3 prolapses a day has been his life for the past 5 weeks. Unfortunately, he prolapse today and we were unable to to reduce it. We’re now in the ED, he just had an x-ray, and I’m waiting to talk to the surgical team about what to do next.

I realized it’s been a long while since we posted on Garrett.  Garrett has been doing great, particularly in the last 2 months. It took awhile to get to this point, with mobility being his biggest hurdle. He lost a lot of weight and muscle tone during his hospitalization and convalescence, so walking around the house was painful. He couldn’t make it up and down our stairs on his own.  However, Garrett has been going to PT, swimming and chasing/being chased by Gibson. He’s back to his old strength again.   Garrett was really thin back in July, but since August he has been trying new foods and eating a lot, and has increased his weight by 15% since discharge. And, his skin has really cleared up too! All told, we’re happy. He’s back at school and has started soccer.   The setback now really has to do with his stoma, which has been prolapsing quite a bit. We’re working on core strengthening exercises to help.