A Preemie Miracle: Blake Hargis: "Not this thing again."

July 6, 2012

What a LONG week!! This has by far been my least favorite week in a while. We have definitely been on our fair share of ups, and downs through this NICU journey...and we have definitely been through worse...BUT- sending your child to TWO surgeries (yes two- the third is on hold...more details later in the post.) in TWO days is not something we ever want to do again!

Brain surgery:

Monday we woke up knowing we were the 2nd case...so only awake for a few short hours before having to go...so we were able to hold him, love on him, and kiss all over him all before the surgery. Once 10:00am came we were actually able to walk him down to the 2nd floor to surgery and pass him over. Zach was very sweet and allowed me to hold him all the way down there....I thought I was holding it together really well. That was until I had to place him in an isolette so they could take him to the operating room and he started to wail. Our son does not wail...he at times whimpers....and sometimes cries dont get me wrong. BUT THIS- this was no cry this was a loud scream. A sound I never expected, and never want to hear again. Zach and I sat and cried right along with him and kissed him goodbye and told him we would see him in a little while. One and a half to two LONG hours later our nurse came and got us to tell us the surgery was over and Dr. Ackerman wanted to see us downstairs. Im assuming that Charmaine saw the look of fear strike my face and quickly reassured us that Blake was fine and that Dr. Ackerman just couldn't come upstairs because she had another case. WHEW! Blake tolerated everything well. They kept the breathing tube in only because of his surgery Tuesday. Blake shortly disagreed with that thought and pulled the tube out himself! LITTLE STINKER!! He was able to breath on his own and did not need to have the tube replaced but because he had just gotten some heavy sedation they went ahead and replaced the tube because lil' man was just a little too sleepy. Below are pics of before and after.

Before surgery- sleeping so sweetly...showing that he really does have a neck!!

After surgery...a little drugged up at the moment, but still loving on his daddy!

Belly surgery:
Tuesday Blake was scheduled to be the last case at 3:30pm.
Good thing about being later in the day= more time to spend with Blake and we can sleep in a bit.
Bad thing about being later in the day= more time to worry about Blake.
So the plan was to sleep in a bit, really since Friday we had been on the move and had barely slept! But as always, things don't always go as planned. We received a call early that morning to tell us that the surgery had been moved to 11:00am, okay not so bad, so we started waking up so we could spend some time with our lil' man before surgery. BUT THEN....we got another call. Our Module had been closed due to an emergency, so we could NOT get back to see Blake. This momma was SUPER upset! Our nurse explained that another child was not doing well and they had to close the module due to test they were doing and that she promised to call as soon as the module reopened. Poor Lauren, this still did not make me very happy, and as much as I understood it didn't change that fact that I wanted to see Blake for more than 30 minutes before they did this surgery!
9:00 passed....still not open.
10:00 passed still not open!
Finally at 10:15 Lauren called and YAY the module was back open and our surgery had been pushed back to 1:00pm! We rushed over there. This is how we found our sweet li;' man before surgery!

After 3 different times Blake finally went back at 1:30pm to the operating room. Again we walked down with him (this time we couldn't hold him due to the fact he was on the breathing machine) and said our goodbyes and see ya laters. We then went and sat in the surgery waiting. And we waited. And we waited. And we waited. Finally at 5:00pm YES- THREE AND A HALF hours later *But who is counting?* we got to see our little man and everything went well! They had to cut out some more of his intestine than they thought, they removed his appendix (Even though they said it was so damaged they could hardly tell what it was), and he lost a little blood but all in all everything went great! Dr. Rouse was very pleased with the whole surgery! I had kept myself together all day- not cried alot, and stayed strong. But when I saw my little baby (notice the lack of lil' man) I lost it! I could hardly hold myself up! This surgery scared me, but I wouldn't let it on. It was a very complex surgery with multiple risks, and I just kept praying that my little baby would come back to me safe and sound....and God answered prayers. A little swollen, and beat up but there he was safe and sound. WHEW! Here are some pics after surgery

(if the site of blood or incisions makes you sick scroll quickly!)

Blake right after surgery...still pretty drugged up.

Poor guy lost some blood so they pumped him full of fluids...already SO swollen!

Look at those little piggies!

Note his head incision...looks really good already!

Poor little (BIG) baby!!

Our Fouth of July was not a great one. Blake post operatively had a little set back. His blood gases, which tell us how well he is doing on the breathing machine, were really not great. He had swelled up like a marshmellow, and was third spacing (fluid was shifting from his cells into his tissue). Blake literally gained a whole pound since Sunday weighing a whooping 5lbs 7oz. so we aren't joking about how swollen he really is!! We know he could get "sick" after these surgeries and well...needless to say...he did. He was changed from the regular ventilator to the oscillator ventilator (Haven't had to say that vent since back in the Deaconess days!)He was placed on it for pain control and to help inflate his right upper lobe of his lung back up *Yes it collapsed again!- welcome back that problem :( * This did not make Zach and I feel any better and made our physical and emotion drain even worse!

"what the heck just happened to me?!?!"

Blake looking up at Daddy.

"Not this stupid thing again! CRAP!"

Good News though....Today we are already back off the oscillator due to a whole day of phenomenal blood gases! Blake is still swollen, but improving and his pain is getting a little better! Keep up the prayers and we will be hoping to report back more good news in the next few days as Blake sheds some of this excess fluid and gets rid of that stinking breathing machine! PS if you hadn't noticed I haven't mentioned his eyes. The surgery was cancelled this week due to the fact that well...frankly...as of right now he doesn't look like he needs it yet!! YAY!! We have our next eye exam on Tuesday- KEEP PRAYERS GOING! Hopefully this issue will work itself out- Stay for more updates!

"Hey guys!! I'm doing better- still swollen but better!"