Back home!

Hi friends,
I apologize for the lack of posts since my update about Jude's re-herniation. We've just been trying to adjust to the fact that Jude will be facing another surgery. Overall Jude remains pretty happy and is acting mostly like himself.

However, over the last few days the number of times that Jude has thrown up and the actual volume of his vomits have both increased. For awhile Jude was only throwing up 2 to 4 times a day...but over the last two weeks the number of vomits have been slowly creeping up. Earlier this week he was averaging around 6 or 7 vomits...then there were 9 yesterday and today we hit a total of 11.

Not fun at all for our little guy.

On top of that, he seemed to be working a little bit harder to breathe. Nothing terribly alarming but we did not want to push him too hard. 

This afternoon we paged the GI doc on call and the surgeon on call at MUSC to update them on Jude's status and get their opinions on what we should do for our little guy. Their greatest concerns were for Jude's breathing and they wanted to make sure that he was not dehydrated because of all the vomiting.

So, we got our little guy ready (and called our local pediatrician) and went to our local ER. We were taken back immediately and Jude was assessed. He was hooked up to a monitor and  his oxygen saturation good. They did some blood work and got an IV in for some fluids. After 30 minutes or so Jude perked up and seemed to be feeling much better. His blood work came back and all looked good there too!

The ER doctor checked in with Jude's surgeon at MUSC and our local pediatrician and then gave us the "okay" to take our little guy home for the night. We were advised (of course) to continue to keep an eye on him and come back/call if anything else concerned us.

Praise God! We are so thankful to have our little boy sleeping in his own little crib tonight.

Why is Jude throwing up more?
We think that it is because his stomach is back in his chest. But I'm thinking that we will have a few more answers this coming week. On Monday Jude is having an upper GI to get a better look at exactly how much of his insides are in the wrong place. And then his GI doc and surgeon will take a look at those pictures to determine what to do next.

How soon will his next surgery be?
Again, we are not sure yet. But the hope is (much like last time) that we can put off surgery at long as possible so that Jude can get bigger and stronger. The healthier he is the easier it will be for him to recover from his third repair surgery.
But, if Jude's GI troubles continue to increase or if he begins to have respiratory trouble it is likely that his surgery will happen sooner rather than later.

So, for now...we wait. And pray for a happy Jude for as long as possible.

We are so thankful for all the prayers and support during this new part of Jude's journey. Please keep praying!