Maddox has his Diaphragmatic Hernia Repair Surgery - March 25, 2011

I'm recovering ok from my operation. My c-section incision is bigger than normal. They didn't want to  struggle too much to take Maddox out. So I'm on pain medication to help manage my pain. Sometimes it helps sometimes it doesn't. I wish was able to stay in his room longer and stand and talk to him but my pain and the horrible gut feeling makes it diffcult for me to be with him all day. I know I need to heal and recover myself. So that's my struggle that I've been dealing with while I'm healing.

Maddox is now two days old. He's been a strong fighter! His color has changed and he looks a lot better. He's a BEAUTIFUL baby boy, I tell ya!!! You guys got to see him in person, pictures don't do justice. Tawa and I are sooo proud of our little man.

Dr Olutoye said since he's stable, they will go ahead and do the repair surgery today while he is on ECMO. We were surprised because a lot of CDH babies  that I've heard, have to wait several days before they get their repair surgery done.

The repair surgery involves making an incision where the diaphram hernia is at. In Maddox case, he has a left diaphragmatic hernia. They had to make an incision on the left side of his chest and then moved all the stomach contents that had migrated to his chest cavity below the diaphragm. This included his liver, intestines, and spleen.

The surgery took place in his room that's in the NICU. We had to wait for the OR team to come to him and sterilize the room and prep Maddox for surgery. It was around 11:45 AM when the surgery began. We were waiting anxiously and praying that the surgery would go well. It was really nerve wrecking. Two and half hours later we got a call that the surgery was done and that we could go see Maddox. Dr Olutoye greeted us when we got there with a smile. He said Maddox did really well and that he didn't lose too much blood. His numbers went up and all that pressure to his heart was relieved. Being that his stomach contents were in his chest cavity there was little room for his heart.  In fact, his heart had been pushed all the way to the right side of his chest.  His heart will probably never move all the way back to the left side but that is fine.  There is no need to mess with that.  Dr Olutoye also confirmed that his left lung was small as we had expected. His right lung is all there. It was a HUGE relief to hear that he did well undergoing that surgery. Maddox proved to be a fighter once again. That was a huge hurdle that we knew that we had to face along this journey.  He's not out of the woods yet though as he still needs to be supported by ECMO.  This is a positive step in the right direction.  Once he recovers from this surgery, they will work to ween him off ECMO.

Several friends and family came down and visited us from Dallas. There were a total of 19 and half ( the half was Maddox's 6 month old cousin Keilani) who all drove and flew down last minute from Dallas and San Antonio to come show their love and support for Maddox and us. Without out them we could not have made it through this extremely difficult time.

Maddox-  right after surgery

- Jenny Torry