Quick Update from Surgery

Austin had his appointment with Dr. Valusek yesterday afternoon.  All went well.  She was very pleased with how he's doing and that we are continuing to be able to go up on his continuous and oral feeds.  The big discussion was around his ostomy.  It looks good so no concerns.  The soonest they would take it down would be 6 weeks (we are nearing 9 weeks post op this Friday), so we are already past that mark.  They like to leave it as long as he's tolerating it because it allows the gut to heal and it's inevitable that when he has the surgery it will set back his progress fairly significantly.  So, we will return to the clinic in January unless he begins having issues/concerns.

When the decision is made that it's time to take down the ostomy and connect his small intestine (bowels) back to his large intestine (colon), they will also replace his PEG (g-tube) with a MIC-KEY button.  This is a much smaller and more simple access on his abdomen.  We could do this sooner, but we don't want Austin under additional anesthesia if not necessary.  When the decision is made that it's time to do both surgeries, we are looking at a 1 week to 1 month long hospital stay.

We hope everyone has a fantastic Thanksgiving holiday!

Hugs,
Tara and Brian
Max and Austin