Postoperative complications – HEALTH FREAK MOMMY

Baby C’s Post-Surgery (2nd Op) – Day 3 and Day 4

Post-Op (2nd op) – day 3 (25 May 09)
Baby C was given an enema in the morning to induce her to poo poo. She poo pooed quite a bit and the stools were green. More and more of her usual antics re-surfaced. She also farted towards the evening at around 5pm when she was crying. I guess the straining from the crying induced the fart. Though a short fart, it was loud enough to be heard and I was happy. I SMSed my surgeon to inform him. At around 8ish pm, my maid told me that she heard baby farting again, about 4 times. Then about half an hour later, she farted once more and my maid and I heard the fart! Talk about farts now, I love the sweet sounds of my baby’s farts!

For the first time after her first surgery on 5 May 09, she SMILED!! My maid managed to make her smile when she made a “bah bah” sound, telling her that a goat says “bah bah”. I tell you, her smile was priceless, really priceless and she looked soooooooo sweet and angelic. How I miss her smiles and giggles. I am hoping to see more of them soon.

The Accounts Clerk from the hospital came in to our room to give me a BIG present. When I saw her, I knew what was in the envelope. It was our bill and it totalled RM18k++ (from last Saturday through yesterday, i.e. 10 days). Our first bill was RM24k++!

Baby C on Saturday, 23 May 09 morning, i.e. barely 12 hours after her second surgery. On her body is the central venous catheter. TPN drips, morphine, antibiotics, sodium and glucose drips are given through this central line. Check out my health blog to read more and to view more pix.

Post-Op (2nd op) – day 4 (26 May 09)
I didn’t get to sleep throughout the night. It was extremely hard to put her to sleep at night. She didn’t want just pats and strokes…. but wanted me to sleep next to her. So I climbed into her cot and contorted my body to fit into her cot, with my legs dangling on the railing… just so I was next to her. She managed to fall asleep but when I climbed out of the cot, she woke up again. This happened several times. Finally, I asked the nurses to rearrange the positioning of the drips and machines so that I could bring baby to my bed to sleep with me. I regretted doing that coz I couldn’t sleep with her next to me. She was tossing and turning on the bed and felt really uncomfortable with the big bunch of tubes hanging on her body and the NG tube that’s hanging precariously on her nose. She kept wanting to sleep on her tummy (with her butt in the air) but this position is not good for the bunch of tubes. She was also trying in vain to rub her eyes and nose and I kept holding her hands to prevent her from doing so. She felt really frustrated and upset that my maid and I kept restricting her movements. She also kept rubbing her face on the mattress.

Finally at 5am, I woke up to a shock when I saw that the plaster securing the NG tube on her nose had come out and was dangling on the tube. I quickly yelled out to my maid to press the emergency button for the nurses’ help. Baby was struggling and yelling and the NG tube just slid out from her nostril!! I was horrified. The nurse called our doctor for advise and he said to hold on to the re-insertion of the NG tube until he comes in and see baby in the morning.

Since this morning, Baby C has shown great interest in our food and is showing signs of hunger. When I ate fruits (orange and dragon fruit) this morning, she kept pointing to them. She also kept staring at my maid and I whenever we ate…. lapped her lips and kept salivating, poor thing 🙁 She has been pointing to the table where I put my fruits the whole of today. Whenever I asked her where is the orange, where is the dragon fruit, she would point to the basket of fruits on the table and said “there”.

This morning Baby was given another enema to induce her to poo poo…. and she poo pooed quite a bit. Also farted once when she poo pooed and strained (after the enema was administered). Our doctor said to start feeding baby with clear fluids. If she doesn’t vomit, she can be fed a little breast milk tonight.

As I am typing this post, my sweetie-pie has just given me another of her sweet angelic smile as she’s playing with her toys now. Baby doesn’t want to nap and just wants to be played with and entertained the whole day.

…. to be continued

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Baby C’s Post-Surgery (2nd Op) – Day 2, Sunday 24 May 09

Baby C started to be more and more alert and responsive yesterday. She was feeling way better than she was before her second surgery to fix her guts. When we asked her to make her trademark ‘funny face’, she gladly showed us like this:

Seeing baby make her trademark ‘funny face’ and being so responsive made all of us so happy and relieved. She could also show us her body parts when we asked her to. For the first time since her first op on 5 May 09, she finally said “cheh cheh” when she saw her 2 doting sisters’ pic on my handphone. She could said “bear bear” when she saw a baby with his Pooh bear soft toy on TV.

As baby had slept quite a bit after her 2nd op for almost 24 hours, she was really wide and awake the whole of yesterday and today. She didn’t want to take her nap yesterday and watched VCDs from 3pm through 10pm yesterday! Thank God, she slept quite soundly at night. At least my maid and I could catch up a little on our sleep… but the nurses who came into our room to check on baby and the drips every single hour kept jolting us up from our sleep.

Since baby was wide awake the whole afternoon yesterday, my maid and I could barely do anything. We have to watch over her like a hawk to ensure that she did not rub her nose coz if she did, the NG tube would slide out from her nostril. It had happened once and we definitely do not want this to repeat coz if would be too traumatizing for baby to have the NG tube inserted again. Baby absolutely HATES having her hands bandaged and wrapped tightly. I can’t wait for the NG tube to be removed. Baby also wanted to be carried a lot but carrying her is really really tricky as she has tubes everywhere….. the NG tube that’s hanging precariously from her nose and the central line hanging from her body. If the central line gets pulled off, holy moly, she has to go to the OT to have it reinserted. There are also sutures to hold the line in place on her chest.

That’s how Baby C looked like yesterday. On the left is a monitor to track her heart beat, at the foot of the cot is a machine to release morphine into the IV line and hanging on the steel rack are her Hartmann’s solution and the big packet of white liquid that looks like milk is her expensive nutrients.

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Baby C ‘s Second Surgery!

By now, most bloggers already know that my sweetie-pie went through another major surgery yesterday evening. My joy of being able to breastfeed baby was shortlived when her tummy looked more and more distended by the hour yesterday. Baby was in total discomfort and she kept fretting and wanted to be carried the whole day. My doctor and I knew that something wasn’t right inside her coz her tummy was really bloated, like a balloon, like this:

Our surgeon told us that our stomach will produce almost 6 times stomach liquid of what we drink. For eg. if baby drinks 1 ounce of milk, her stomach will produce 6 ounces of stomach liquid. Thus, the bloatedness in her tummy. As I carried her yesterday, I could feel and hear gas and something that feels like water moving ravenously inside her stomach and each time it happened, my poor baby will yell out in pain. That’s because the wind and liquid are trying to find their way out of the guts. I know exactly how it feels coz I experienced spasm of my guts after my 3rd c-section.

Our doctor came to our room to check on baby many times yesterday. He kept telling me he was very certain that there is an obstruction from the look and feel of baby’s tummy. I couldn’t agree with him more and I really freaked out by the look and feel of her tummy. At 4pm, our doctor said he didn’t want to wait any longer and wanted to operate on baby immediately. He briefed me on what to expect and also said that he will get ready some blood coz baby may need a blood transfusion as her haemoglobin is quite low. I was really NOT ready for my baby to go through another surgery so soon. My mind was really blank and it fastforwarded to the worst case scenario. Nonetheless, I just knew it was quite a right thing to do. I quickly called up the hubs and my mum to inform them. My hubs immediately drove back to Penang from KL with baby and her cheh cheh’s 2 godfathers.

When we were outside the OT area, baby instantly cried when she saw me in the purple scubs, face mask and disposable hair cap. She remembered that I was wearing that ugly looking suit before her first surgery 2.5 weeks ago and the next thing she woke up to horrible pain and discomfort. When I carried her and talked to her, she didn’t want me and kept gravitating her body towards my maid. When we were actually in the OT, I think the memories of her first surgery came flashing back in her mind. She was crying away in fear, a look on her face that told me that she knew what she will be going through again. The anesthesiologist quickly administered the GA through her IV line. Within seconds, she konked out. I had to go through the whole sick-to-the-pit-of-my-guts process of putting her on the OT table again, said a prayer for her (in the presence of my dr, anesthesiologist and team), wished my dr good luck and told him to bring my baby out safely in one piece. My dr joked with me and asked me to give baby a kiss on the face, which I did. Leaving the OT room with baby behind was really, really a sickening feeling… a feeling I never ever want to experience again. Negative thoughts did flood my mind over and over again. When I left the OT room, it was about 6pm. I waited outside the OT and prayed fervently.

At 7:20pm, the OT staff came out and called for “Cassandra’s mother”. I stumbled to the door and she told me that the operation had only just started as the doctor had a hard time finding a line on baby’s hands and legs. I was shocked to hear that. I thought she came out to tell me that the surgery was about to be over. It has always been difficult for all my doctors to find a line on baby’s hands and legs since she was hospitalized for UTI for the first time when she was 7 weeks old. Anyway, the IV line was inserted on baby’s right foot yesterday. That foot got puffy AGAIN this morning and the line was removed again.

Whilst waiting for the surgery to be over, I quickly went up to my room, ate my dinner, took my bath and went down to the OT again. At around 8:30pm, my surgeon came out and told me that he found the problem. A small part of baby’s small intestines got hooked, right at the bottom of her guts, near the pelvis. The surgery went well and a lot of the bile juice and whatever water that had caused her stomach to be so bloated were drained out. In addition, our surgeon also removed baby’s appendics, so one less headache for us in future as she will never get an appendicitis in future.

This pic was taken this morning. Baby was really alert. I tempted her with a slice of orange, some omellete and bread and she moved her head forward, opened her mouth wide and licked on the food. When I asked her to show me her ballerina pose leg, she moved her left leg as if she was doing a split and pointed to her leg.

We had to wrap baby’s hand with a bedsheet so that she will not pull off the NG tube on her nose again. In addition, both her hands are now bandaged to prevent her from moving her fingers and pulling the tubes and she looks like a boxer! My maid and I are now watching her like a hawk so that she will not pull off the NG tube and the central line on her body.

A central line was also inserted on baby’s body. It goes from her neck to her upper right breast. Today, the doctor has started her on nutrition drips through the central line. Morphine is also given through the central line. She will be sedated again when the doctor removes the line from her body.

I am praying for Baby C to fart lots now coz once she farts, I can start to feed her.

Check out my other blog to view further pix of Baby C and my health blog to view pic of her little appendics.

….to be continued

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Baby C’s Re-admission – Day 6, Post Surgery Day 16

Yesterday afternoon – the branula on Baby C’s hand leaked. When the doctor opened up the branula, we saw that the hole on baby’s hand had expanded, thus the leakage. Ouch, the line had to be removed and another line inserted again. That was the dunno how many umpteenth time the line was inserted and baby now has holes all on her hands.

When Baby C puked continuously puked last night and her tummy looked really distended, the doctor inserted a nasogastric tube (NG tube) into her nostril. The NG tube passes her nostril, throat and into her guts. Any gastric juice, bile liquid or gas can be aspirated out from the tube. Yesterday, the doctor attached a huge collection bag to the NG tube. Stomach liquid would be able to flow out freely into the collection bag. It was an extremely traumatizing and heart-wrenching time for Baby C and me. I can’t even bring myself to describe here how my baby reacted when the NG tube was inserted into her guts from her nostril. That was just too much for her to bear. Even we adults would freak out and faint seeing the tube being inserted into our guts. After the NG tube was inserted, our doctor ordered another X-ray of the abdomen to be done… at 11pm. The X-ray showed normal guts pattern, some wind at the bottom of her guts (which means that the wind could pass her guts and most likely no obstruction).

This morning, our doctor referred a group of pediatricians to review Baby C, for a second, third and forth opinion. In this hospital, the pediatricians work in a team. Every morning, a team of 3 peds would make ward rounds to review and examine every patient. The peds would take turns to examine the patient, come up with a diagnosis and then brainstorm. The team of peds were all of the opinion that there’s no obstruction in baby’s guts as her stools are green in color, the bowel sounds are active and her tummy is soft. The green color thingy are from the bile and if her guts are obstructed, the bile thingy and stools would not be able to pass the guts and out from her rectum. Also, baby’s temperature had come down, must be the antibiotics (which our dr. started giving to baby late last night) took effect or baby’s body is healing on its own.

I’m now anxiously waiting for my surgeon and the team of peds to revert to me on the next course of action. Meanwhile, the hubs will be flying back to KL today to sort out his business matters after being away from KL for more than 2 weeks.

I would really like to thank all my readers who have been praying for my baby and thanks to the pastors (whom I don’t even know) from 2 churches here in Penang who came to pray for Baby C.

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Updates On Baby C’s Lazy Guts

My worst fear came true this morning when Baby C puked at 3am. The whole of last night, baby’s been very fretful and kept tossing and turning and fussed. I knew she wasn’t feeling too comfy and finally at around 3am, she puked… greenish liquid plus water. Towards the morning, at around 7ish am, she puked again and again. My heart crumbled. I feared the worst and I feared that the doctor would order her to the OT this morning.

After the surgeon came, listened to her guts through the stethescope and examined her tummy this morning, he told me that he’s quite certain that there is no obstruction of the guts. If her guts were obstructed, she would not have pooped out bits of carrots and there would not be so much volume of poop. Also, if her guts were obstructed, her tummy would look really distended, red and swollen. The x-ray taken yesterday showed that the pattern of her guts is as good as normal. Our surgeon reckons that baby most likely has gastroenteritis. After the surgeon left, when the nurse came to check baby’s temperature, she has developed high fever. The only fluid that baby is allowed to drink now is plain water and clear fluids like diluted ribena or 100 Plus. I have also fed her some Probiotics powder. All we can do now is to pray for divine intervention and be patient.

Picture taken last night. Baby C was really well and played with her toys happily.

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Another Surgery?

Baby C was brought down to the X-ray department yesterday evening to have another X-ray of her guts taken. Our doctor said that the guts still looked dilated. The baffling part is that her tummy is very soft (which is a good sign) and she can still pass out some wind. So he wasn’t really 100% sure if her guts are obstructed.

Our surgeon told us yesterday that if Baby C can continue to pass out wind, she may not need a surgery today. If she can continue to pass out wind, this means that her guts are most likely not obstructed. And so since yesterday, I have been praying that baby would fart and that God will heal her guts. From 3am until 5am, my sweetie-pie was crying for her “mek mek”. All I could do was to pat her, stroke her and put her to sleep on my chest. After putting her to sleep with much difficulties, I had to pump out my milk again. I didn’t manage to sleep the entire night. At 5ish am, when baby cried, I heard her fart. I tell you, the sounds of her fart were like sweet sound of music to my ears. For the second time in my life, I prayed for farts. The first time was after my 3rd c-section, when I could not pass out wind and had very painful spasms of the guts for 2 days. The second time is with Baby C now. Farts from my baby are now so precious to me! Also, this morning Baby C pooped quite a bit. When I told our surgeon that I could see undigested carrot bits (from the porridge that she ate 3 days ago!), our doctor was excited. He said “Carrots in the poop? That’s good! If the carrots could pass her guts and come out from her rectum, this means her guts are not obstructed. Now, give me a smile girl!” I was really ecstatic to hear these words from him. Also, the fact the she kept crying for milk is also a good sign.

Baby C was taken to the X-ray department again at 8:30am today. It was another round of bawling and struggling for her… and boy do I hate to wear the heavy special protective suit made of plumbum. Our surgeon who viewed the film told us that the pattern of the guts look much better today. There was also some wind at the bottom of the guts, which means that the wind is moving and can pass her guts…. which most likely means no obstruction.

Our surgeon also ordered that Baby C be given some Lacto GG probiotics this morning. I mixed the probiotics powder with 2 teaspoons of soy bean milk and as I fed her, I kept praying that she would not puke. Baby C drank the soy bean milk with much enthusiasm as she was really famished and has been yearning to drink and eat. About an hour later, she appeared like she wanted to puke in her sleep. I carried her, kept stroking her back and kept praying that she would not puke…. thank God she didn’t puke. I’m still praying hard that Baby C is able to retain the soy bean milk and probiotics in her tummy without throwing them out.

Here are some pix of Baby C taken last week. I had wanted to post these pix last week but my laptop konked out.

Evil mummy tempting baby with a slice of orange to test if her appetite had returned…. it did and on the same day, she pulled out the nasogastric tube herself… again…. and our doctor gave us the green light to start feeding her with milk.

Phobia of nurses and doctor. The sight of the nurses and doctor would surely make my poor baby bawl.

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Updates On Baby C’s Re-admission

Baby C is still puking today. I had only fed her with 3 teaspoons of soy bean milk to go with her antibiotics this morning and she puked them all out, together with yellowish bile liquid about an hour later. It was really horrifying to see her puke as not only did the vomit pour out from her mouth, but also from her nostrils…. and each time she puked, she would jump up from bed, as if in shock…. and that really shocked me. Our surgeon told us this morning that if she continues to puke today, in she goes to the OT for a surgery to fix her guts tomorrow. Gawd… I hope she doesn’t have to be operated on again. It would really be tooooooo much for my poor baby to bear.

The CT scan machine. I was with Baby C during the CT scan yesterday. She bawled and kept struggling throughout the procedure. The radiologist had to hold her head and hands tightly to prevent her from struggling. The ginormous machine looks really intimidating huh?

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Baby C Re-admitted Into Hospital

Baby C was discharged from the hospital yesterday. Words couldn’t express how happy I was when our surgeon told us that Baby C can be discharged after being cooped up in the hospital for 11 freaking long days. I was also so happy to be able to feed my baby food again. She was happily enjoying her eggs and soup and I was so happy to be able to nurse her again. BUT…… our nightmare began again at 11:30pm last night.

I woke up to have a sip of water when I heard Baby C coughing. Immediately I knew she was in for trouble. I turned on the lights and saw the comforter soiled with her vomit. The bed was covered with her vomit. My maid and I moved around like zombies cleaning the bed and bathing baby as her body was soiled with vomit too. Long story cut short, she puked again at 3:30am on another bed in another room. I was sleeping in vomit and smelt vomit the whole night. Towards the morning, baby wanted milkie and I nursed her a little. A couple of hours later, she puked again, several times.

At 9am, I immediately sent a text message to our surgeon. I later spoke to him over the phone. He wanted us to go back to Penang as he wanted to see baby’s tummy. He wanted us in ASAP as it was a Saturday and the X-ray department staff work half day. Hubby and I made a mad dash back to Penang. We reached Penang just before 1pm and the surgeon ordered an X-ray and a CT scan on baby. My poor baby had to endure another 2 rounds of intimidating moments with ginormous machines above her, especially the CT scanner. As usual, I had to wear a special suit made of plumbum since I was with her throughout the scans. I tell you, I can’t believe Baby C’s misfortunes. She had gone through so much and I think she had also gone through most of the scans and X-rays available from MCUG to IVP to Fluoroscopy to ultrasound scans, X-rays and today a CT scan.

The scans today showed that her guts are still dilated, albeit the dilation has subsided as compared to the scans done several days ago. Our surgeon who examined her tummy said that it is soft (which is a good sign. A hard tummy is no good). Also, he cannot really confirm that her guts are obstructed since the Fluorscopy confirmed no obstruction and there is no yellowish bile fluid flowing out from her nostrils. If indeed there is an obstruction, her tummy would also be grossly bloated and she will look terribly uncomfortable. But my poor baby kept begging and crying for “mek mek” and kept putting her hand inside my blouse and wanted milk. Good appetite is also another favorable sign.

Baby C is now on IV drips and is ‘nil by mouth’ again for God knows how long. It’s now a waiting game and I can only pray that very soon, my poor baby can start to drink and eat without puking anymore. My poor baby has holes all over her hands now, as a result of the IV line (which had to be re-inserted once every few days resulting from swollen hands) over the past 2 weeks.

Oh yes, we were over RM24,000 poorer when we left the hospital yesterday and God knows how much the bill will cost this time.

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Baby C’s Post Surgery – Day 5 and 6

Post Surgery Day 5 (Sunday, 10 May 09)
Early in the morning, the x-ray machine was wheeled into our room for the x-ray to be done on Baby C’s guts and chest since she was still puking. The x-ray showed nothing wrong with her guts and chest. There was however lots of gas towards the lower abdomen. Baby C was still puking albeit overall, her condition has improved, i.e. was more alert and looked happier.

Post Surgery Day 6 (Monday, 11 May 09)
When our surgeon examined her in the morning, he commented that Baby C’s tummy looked really distended. Bowel loops were also visible on her tummy. Her tummy felt hard. Our doctor inserted the nasogastric tube back through Baby C’s nostrils and aspirated out lots of gas plus breast milk that she drank 3 hours ago. Imagine, she drank the milk 3 hours ago and it was still sitting inside the guts! Our doctor was worried that her guts are obstructed and if indeed they are, holy moly, she would need a surgery to fix them! I tell you, I was sick to the pit of my own guts.

Baby C’s hand where the IV line was inserted got puffy AGAIN! This is the 3rd time it got puffy and the doctor had to remove the line and insert the brannula in another hand…. again!

Our surgeon ordered another x-ray called Fluoroscopy. The radiologist had to inject some contrast via the nasogastric tube and at intervals capture pictures of the guts. I was told that the procedure would take between half an hour to an hour but it lasted up to 3 hours! That 3 hours felt like 3 days as I waited for the news. I could not imagine the pain and torture my poor baby would have to endure if she had to go through yet another surgery.

Our surgeon walked in later in the afternoon and told us that Baby C’s guts are not obstructed. She has postoperative Ileus or lazy guts. What a relief I felt upon hearing the news. The whole of today Baby C has been fretful and crabby. She has also caught our cough virus and has lots of phlegm. My poor baby, not only does she feel pain in the wound but has horrendous discomfort in her tummy and throat too. But she’s tough and resilient. I hope she will turn the corner and bounce back tomorrow.

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