Friday 8/31 – 5 weeks post op

Today is 5 weeks from his surgery day! He is doing great! We haven’t had any appointments this week which has been fantastic. We’ve enjoyed time at home and outside playing with the neighbors. We are still in isolation mode, avoiding densely populated areas like grocery stores & church, but look forward to getting out a bit more in the near future. Gideon is eating well, exclusive breastfeeding with solids 1-2 times per day and he has kept it all down for the most part. I will keep introducing more foods that are high fat and high calorie to make sure his nutritional needs are met but he gets most of his nutrition from breastfeeding. Apparently I’m back to making an ok quantity of milk for him with the 2 tablespoons of solids he gets per day. Right now his diet consists of full fat, whole milk yogurt with a little multi grain cereal to make it a bit thicker or avocado with breastmilk. I’m going to puree some chicken for him tonight with milk and see how he does with that. At almost 8 months old, he should be able to eat pretty much everything we eat but we know he’s got a bit of a sensitive system and he doesn’t have the strongest airway so I need to make sure everything he gets is the right consistency so he doesn’t choke on it. He also doesn’t have the oral motor development to move food around properly in his mouth which is a choking hazard to be aware of when I feed him. He has lost quite a bit of muscle tone having spent 5 weeks on his back so his head control isn’t quite as good as it was before, nor is his core strength so he’s not as sturdy as he used to be i the high chair sitting up to eat solids. But he will get there again! 1 more week of sternal precautions and we can get back to working on his core strength therapy exercises and sitting up assisted, etc.

His foot is mostly healed up, it’s still bruised but it’s pretty much back to normal size. He’s got toes and an ankle again so that’s great!

His sternotomy & chest tube scars are healing nicely. He had 2 chest tubes during his 1st surgery but only had 1 this time plus the extra one they put in under his armpit and the redness is almost all gone. We have to remain extra careful until those are completely closed/healed to make sure that’s not a place infection can start. He is finally starting to gain weight again. It’s slow but we’re headed in the right direction. He has gained .14 kilograms according to our scale at home in the past 7 days.  Not at lot but as long as he is continuing to gain, we are thankful.

We have so many praises. He has only had a few episodes of the vomiting, hopefully that is done and over with. His foot is almost back to normal. His weight is heading in the right direction without the NG tube on breastmilk and solids. He is making great pee without any Lasix. He is settling nicely into a new sleep, eat, awake routine and while it’s a bit unpredictable, it’s easy to see what he needs when he needs it so I’m trying to be ok with just meeting his needs on the fly rather than on the clock schedule like I’m used to.

We would love continued prayers for excellent health for all of us in our home, continued weight gain for Gideon and milk production for me and continued healing for his foot.

Tonight is our last meal on the meal train, that has been such a HUGE blessing to us, thank you to everyone who provided a meal physically for us or sent a gift card for delivery or we even had doordash deliver food one night, I’ve never used a food delivery service before but that was pretty cool! We have been so blessed by your generosity and taking such good care of us! I had meal planned for the week and grocery shopped so I have been making our meals again and getting into a good routine with Bo going back to work, but I do have to say, some days are easier than others so having a meal in the freezer I can just throw in the oven or pressure cooker or on the stove that’s already done has been a huge blessing too. I still have 2 meals left in the freezer that I can pull out on crazy days to feed us.

We are so grateful and thankful to you for praying with and for us throughout this whole journey!

Love,
Kari