Since the beginning of January Atticus kept getting really, horribly sick anytime his feedings got close to being full sized for a baby of his diminutive stature. The doctors were completely stumped. They knew he was sick, they knew he was very sick. He always had signs of infection but they could never find the site of the infection and his body had terrible inflammatory responses to the stress his body was under. In particular his airway would swell up and close off and his digestive system would completely shut down.
Last week he began to have this type of reaction again. Last Thursday in the morning he seemed to have cold-like symptoms. His breathing was raspy, he was lethargic and irritable. I mentioned it to his nurse that he did not seem right. She had noticed it too as had his respiratory therapist. They started watching him carefully. By 3 in the afternoon he was quite a bit worse and they gave him some epinephrine to try and counteract some of the swelling and respiratory distress he was having. By 6 that night he was having even more breathing difficulties and the epinephrine was causing his heart rate to go up above 240 beats per minute. The doctor ordered sedatives and gave him fluids and they were able to get his heart rate almost back to where it was supposed to be. He stayed in this state until Saturday night late when he had to be reintubated and placed back on a ventilator because his air way had become so constricted. The Dr. had to use the smallest tube available to them and even then had great difficulty getting the tube in place. The tube eased his breathing and he became stable again until Monday afternoon.
Monday Atticus just seemed more off than usual. He seemed to be in pain and his skin had a horrible grey pallor to it. His nurse, respiratory therapist, Grandma Cheryl and myself all thought he looked and acted completely out of sorts. The Dr. agreed but they still could not find anything wrong. They were going to do a lumbar puncture that evening on him to rule out meningitis. Joe and Grandpa George came to give him a blessing before the procedure. Grandpa George blessed Atticus that his body would be able to heal and that the Dr.s and medical staff would be able to find out what was wrong with him. About 30 minutes later his afternoon x-rays came back and they looked very suspicious. A second x-ray was taken and it was discovered that there was tons of free air in Atticus' abdomen. He had perforated his bowel.
The pediatric surgeon was called immediately and by 8:00 Monday night Atticus was in surgery to repair the tear. It was an incredibly scary and emotional experience for our family. The surgery took a little over an hour. They were able to find where the hole was and were able to clear up all the junk that had spilled out into his abdomen. He still has a little loop of his intestine outside of his belly to give it time to heal without infection. In 4-6 weeks they will do another surgery to replace it in his belly and repair a small hernia he has as well.
The Dr. who examined him Monday before surgery came and talked to me today. He and the surgeon both feel like the bowel probably tore several weeks ago but because of it's position in the abdomen it was pushed shut and healed partially on its own and last week when he began eating full meals again it probably got inflamed, then infected, and then Monday it tore again and this time it was big enough that hey were able to see it.
The whole experience was a miracle. Not only was the tear discovered minutes after receiving a blessing that included being able to find the source of his illness, but the Dr. who performed the surgery, the only pediatric surgeon at the hospital, had just returned that morning from a vacation. Had Atticus needed surgery the day before he would have had to been transferred to Primary Children's in Salt Lake where he would have had to stay until he is ready to come home (probably some time in April).
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