The first of many

Hernia repair surgery, shown actual size on Wyatt.

Well, we survived the first of what will probably be many trips to the ER with Wyatt. He had emergency hernia surgery on Tuesday, April 5, at Children's Hospital in St. Paul. We're thankful to say the surgery was a success, and he is recovering well at home. 

Backtracking a little: on Friday he was cranky, refused to eat solids, and ultimately became clingy, listless and unenergetic. (This is quite scary when you're used to a vigorous, kicky almost-9-mo-old.) We stayed in on Saturday, but he was still irritable and unhappy, so we went to Urgent Care on Sunday. The doctor there diagnosed him with an ear infection (still!) and prescribed the antibiotic Cefinidir to clear up the infection.

On Monday he seemed to be doing a bit better. However, on Monday night he started vomiting, so we called a nurse line for advice. The nurse agreed that the vomiting could be a reaction to the antibiotic, so we stayed home and tried to treat the vomiting. He was sick throughout the night and ultimately stopped nursing, which worried us. 

On Tuesday morning he was dehydrated and clearly very unhappy, so we brought him to his regular pediatrician first thing. She discovered his hernia and sent us right along to the hospital. 

Once at the hospital, the team of doctors and nurses first tried (unsuccessfully, and painfully) to resolve the hernia without surgery by "popping" the intestine back into place. After some ultrasounds, and consultation to get the surgical team together -- I didn't know that pediatric urologists even existed -- Wy went into surgery, which lasted about 45 minutes. He came out with 3 very small incisions on his abdomen and groin that are sutured with Dermabond ("super glue" for the skin, instead of stitches).

He spent most of Tuesday recuperating. By Tuesday night he looked like the old Wy -- he had his color back and was no longer dehydrated. We came home on Wednesday, less than 36 hours after our initial trip to the pediatrician. 

Stay tuned for more details.