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Showing posts from January, 2023

Garrett's Home!

Garrett is back home! Though tired, he wanted to try and catch the tail end of the school day at HFS. We thought it better that he just come home; he's already had some pizza and is relaxing in bed playing Roblox by himself. Gibson is not home from school yet, and all Garrett wants to do is play with his brother! Jill and I are happy that our house will be full again tonight. Thanks everyone for your thoughts and support this week!

Garrett is getting discharged today!

Garrett is progressing well: he ate some pancakes this morning for breakfast and has been managing his pain with tylenol and motrin. His surgeon is happy with that and has cleared him for discharge today, so we'll see how long all the paperwork takes and when he actually gets out the door. 

Today's update

 Garrett is doing well after his procedure. The obstruction has been fixed and he's passing things normally again. He has understandably been in pain since the procedure and has been trying to rest. He's been cleared for light food to see how his GI tract tolerates it. As he shakes off the heavier painkillers today, we'll be coaxing him to eat and drink today to get that process started.

Out of Surgery

Garrett had a successful stoma revision and is in post-op; we're waiting for him to wake up. Speaking with his surgeon, everything went well. It wasn't obvious what caused the small bowel obstruction (ie, adhesion or kink), but his doctor did think the opening in the abdominal wall fascia was tight and food may have obstructed it, leading to an inflamed and swollen bowel. More to come...

Don't eat the Skittles...

Garrett was admitted to CHOP on Monday night.  He started to have some abdominal pain around his stoma this past Saturday, then threw up multiple times Sunday and Monday. Because he's an IBD kid, we were immediately concerned that there could be a blockage in his GI tract, but we were also hoping it may just be a virus he caught from Gibson. However, his condition did not improve and we brought him to the ED on Monday afternoon. A sump tube was inserted nasally to drain his stomach and to administer contrast for a CT scan. After the CT scan, there was good and not-so-good news: the blockage seems to be right at the stoma and there were no adhesions further up the small intestine to address (the really, really good news)... however, the blockage has not resolved itself after several attempts to help it, and Garrett now needs to undergo a stoma revision (ie, surgery... the not-so-good news).  Garrett is currently scheduled for the procedure around 11am this morning. Stoma revisions a