Baby Steps

We have finally seen all of our doctors today. Last night Alex slept much better and I got a good night sleep!!! In some ways things are pretty much the same and in some ways we made a few baby steps forward today.
 Alex's GI system is still dumping a huge amount of bile, but it is less then yesterday. Dr. O has started another IV medication to try and get his gut working. His x-ray this morning was read as showing a possible obstruction, but we are hoping it is just his typical pseudo-obstruction. If things don't start to improve with this new medication we will have to do more testing to be sure there is not a true obstruction. If he is doing okay in the morning and his output is less then we will try clamping his J-tube for an hour at a time and see how he tolerates it.

Pain team tweaked his pain meds today. We went down slightly on a medication that can slow the gut and added a new medication to try and keep his pain at an acceptable level. We also tweaked his replacement fluids to try and keep his fluid balance at a good level. One of the biggest struggles we are having is the amount of IV medications and fluids we need to get in. Certain meds are not compatible with others and it is a huge puzzle trying to figure out how to get it all in.

Alex did get up and walk a short distance two times today which was great.

Surgery is happy with how things look. They are just waiting for his gut to wake up along with the rest of us. We are still watching the discharge to be sure it is not infected, but he seems okay from a surgery standpoint.

Infectious Disease is just kind of following along to finish out, but his infection is all but cleared. He will be done with his antibiotics on Christmas Eve.

I think that is it! Whew!!! Please continue to pray for Alex's comfort and for his gut to wake up.
Ali