Surgery

Philip is scheduled for surgery tomorrow morning at 10:30am. They will assess the skin and abdominal wall tissue around the gut tomorrow in the OR to determine what kind of closure they can do.
Option 1: They completely pull together and sew the skin and muscle tissue together. This is obviously the best scenario but could make things too tight and compromise other organ systems if it's too tight.
Option 2: They pull together the skin and leave the muscle tissue underneath alone. This is a good option because it will leave less tension but since it essentially creates a ventral hernia, it may require another surgery later on to repair the hernia - though lots of babies naturally heal these on their own.
Option 3: They place a synthetic patch to pull the two ends of his tummy together. This will be necessary if there isn't enough tissue to completely close the bowel safely and comfortably. It will require another surgery later but will seal everything off for now so we can get these intestines to work.


Please send all your love, thoughts and prayers as you have been so wonderful about all along tomorrow at 10:30.


The goal for tonight: sleep for all of us. They have intubated Philip today to ensure he stays relaxed (the other night he terrified us and kicked his intestines out of the silo bag).