The Surgery

Sarah did not respond to any of the normal baby digestive processes. Christina fed her only to be spat upon.
After 24 hours of not producing any stool, the doctors ran some tests and tried some gentle enema type treatments.

This yielded no results. The doctors were consulted, X-Rays taken and the decision to go to surgery was made.

Dr Leff, who had done Will's surgery was going to be the surgeon. She gave us an all-to-familiar diagnosis and plan regarding the surgery. She would try to massage the bowels instead of cut them, but that was not a guarantee.

She said the surgery should last 1.5 to 2 hours. She took Sarah and disappeared down a long corridor. Christina and I left the NICU through the opposite doors. Christina and I did not talk about the surgery very much. This doctor was responsible for the very successful surgery on Will and I think at this point we realized that neither of us had a valid medical degree and could not be of much good unless the Internet connection went out or they needed to reboot a file server.

We went to lunch at the cafeteria. Margaret, a friend of ours, came to lunch and helped us keep our minds off the 600 lb gorilla. Later we went back to the hospital room to await the outcome. Both Christina and I had our eyes on the clock, trying not to get to anxious as the second hour approached.

I don't know much about surgery, but my experience has been that quick is good. I did not want to alarm my wife, and as I found out later she had the same thoughts, that the clock was getting towards 3 hours.

Finally, the phone call. Christina answered and spoke with Dr Leff. She put her fingers up to her mouth, which usually is my wife's first sign of concern.

Her second, more elevated sign of concern is a flat hand to the cheek coupled with an opening of the mouth. Luckily there was no second level.

The good news was that the surgery was successful. The bad news was that after 2 hours of massaging, Sarah's body would not cooperate. The intestines needed to be cut and, like Will, would require stomas and a second procedure.

Be happy with what ya got, because you don't know what ya coulda got.