Our Brave Baby Boy's Surgery

Our Brave Baby Boy's Surgery

When little brother was two weeks old, he was diagnosed with two hernias and an undescended testicle on the left side. At that same time, we were informed that he would need surgery in the future. From what we could physically see with our eyes and feel, our son had an umbilical hernia above his navel and a large rare indirect inguinal hernia on his left side. When our son would cry, the hernias would bulge. I believe he was in a lot of pain since we discovered the hernias especially with the large one that was probably pressing on his stomach. For instance, he would only eat 2 oz. of breast milk at a time and would hardly breastfeed at all. Within minutes after eating, he would scream in pain. I could physically feel the gas bubbles in his abdomen. I was constantly feeding him all day long because I was afraid that he was not gaining enough weight. Luckily, I had a great electric pump and milk supply. In the middle photo below, look on the right (his left) side was where the hernia bulge was located. It was more noticeable when he is crying or upset.

 The dreadful bitter/sweet day finally came!  On August 27, 2013, our three month old baby had a follow up appointment with a pediatric surgeon who works at Utah Valley Hospital. He weighed 10 lbs 14 oz and was 23.5 inches long. To our surprise, the doctor decided it was time to schedule his operation for Friday, August 30, 2013 at 7:00 AM. The day before his surgery the doctor ordered a MRI for our son. The MRI photographs were used to determine what needed to be done during surgery.  In order to do a MRI on my son, my baby had to fast four hours before the procedure because he needed to be sedated during the MRI.  That means no breast milk four hours before and he could drink Pedilite three hours before. I was worried because he had to fast two days in a row (MRI and for surgery the next morning). The nurse put an IV in his arm and he went to sleep. My son was sent home with his IV and we were instructed to flush it during the night that way they could use the same IV in the morning. My little guy was very groggy after his sedation. I had to wake him up a lot to make sure he was fed. I was confident that all would go well in surgery, but what scared me the most was the anesthesia. I had no idea what to expect how my son would react to it but he did great! What a strong little guy! 

The next day, we checked in the hospital at 6:30 AM. Our son was prepped for surgery and they carried him to the surgery room. He was in surgery for a total of three hours (was only intended for 1.5 hours). While our son was recovering from surgery, the surgeon reported to us that our son had an indirect inter parietal hernia on the left side, umbilical hernia, and inguinal hernia on the right side which the doctor found while repairing the others. He also fixed his undescended testicle. He had a total of four incisions. The surgeon explained to us that the he needed assistance from an adult surgeon to help him with repairing his indirect hernia because it is a very uncommon hernia found in infants and children. Indirect hernias are usually found in old men. In fact, the surgeon informed us that there is only one other child documented this May 2013 with this same type of hernia who is from Japan. My baby is definitely one of a kind!  We are so grateful for the wonderful surgeon Earl Downey and his awesome surgical team who took great care of our son! Little brother was very brave and my biggest hero!

 Our little boy was full of smiles two days after surgery thanks to many prayers, positive thoughts, and well wishes! He also received a healing blessing by his father the night before his surgery, which calmed my nerves. It is truly remarkable how quickly infants heal after surgery. I am looking forward to seeing him improve on feeding and sleeping better because of no more hernia pain! What a huge blessing to have modern medicine to heal us!