Practical Theory

Hello everyone,

As the saying goes -- what a difference a day makes. Apparently, Theo's GI surgeon was up all last night thinking about Theo (we're actually not sure this particular doctor ever sleeps,) and he apparently had a late-night epiphany. He decided that Theo needed a barium enema (I'm reasonably sure that Theo is rapidly getting sick of enemas) to get a better picture of what was going on in Theo's colon. They found a leak in his colon -- which should explain all of the post-op problems he's been having -- and rushed him into surgery to correct it. They performed an ostomy on him, cleaned out the gunk (I swear that is the term the doctor used) that had leaked, and set him up with a colostomy bag so that the rest of the colon can heal. We're hoping that this, along with a continued massive antibiotic program, puts him back on the right road. He'll have the colostomy bag for four to six weeks so that the colon can heal with a much lower risk of infection, and then, with a little luck, he'll be ready for another surgery to hook his colon back up. Believe it or not, if his condition improves, Theo would be able to come home with us with the colostomy bag, so we're back to hoping we get to take him home in a few weeks. I don't think we're out of the woods yet, but we feel a lot better than we did yesterday. He'll be on the ventilator for a few days, and then it'll be a few more days until they try to start feeding him -- I think, given the problems he had last time, they are going to take their time with those milestones this time around, but the doctors all seem to think that he should really improve now.

In other news, Kat did receive a steroid injection on her back today, and while she therefore can't run in the Olympics or play Major League Baseball, we are hoping it makes her back a ton better.

Thanks to everyone for your concern, thoughts and prayers. When he's old enough to understand, I'm going to show Theo all of the emails so that he can see how much care there was for him when he was only a few weeks old. He's a very lucky and very loved little boy. Thank you.

Love,
Chris, Kat, Theo and Jakob

Here's a fun piece on SLA that ran on KYW News Radio this week:

New School Stands Out With Lab Coats and Laptops.