The day after we got back from L.A. to visit the family Owen had his g-tube surgery. It was a little scary for me. It was so different from the last time he had surgery. Before he didn't really know who I was but now he waved goodbye to us when they took him into the surgery room. He was soo precious. Right before his surgery, when we were waiting in the waiting room, Owen was sitting there playing with us like he usually does. I just kept looking at him and thinking, he has no idea what is about to happen, poor kid. This surgery was a lot harder for me then surgeries in the past. I guess because he has been home and I wanted to be the one to take care of him.
Overall his surgery went well. It took longer than usual because he had a lot of scar tissue from the 3 prior surgeries. They paged us right when he got out of surgery so we could meet hiim in the recovery room. When we saw him he was so out of it. It was weird to see him like that. He had a hard time as he woke up from the anesthesia. Can you imagine? You wake up one day playing and having a good time, you take a nap, and when you wake up you are not in full control and you are in a lot of pain. I hated waking up from anesthesia when I had surgery and I knew what was going to happen. He had no clue. 
He had surgery on tuesday the 26th and they sent him home, seemingly recovered, on friday the 29th. When we got home Owen seemed to have a pretty big tummy. I didnt worry too much until early the bext morning when he began to throw up and wasn't pooping. He woke up and threw up 5 times that morning. After talking to a GI doctor from Oakland, we brought Owen into Sonora Regional. They did a KUB and saw that he had a significant amount of air in his stomach and intestine. They decided to send him back to Oakland.
When we arrived at Oakland, it was clear we would be there for a while. He was re-admitted into the surgery department. The surgeons were telling us that he probably had a blockage due to all the adhesions made from previous surgeries and this last surgery. This was NOT a good sign. If he did have a blockage they would have to do more surgery which would probably only lead to more blockages because he has been through too many surgeries with too much scar tissue. The surgeons wanted to be conservative because Owen had been through too much. They said that for the first few days they would just keep Owen NPO and see how he does. They did not want to do another surgery unless they had to.
Within two days Owen pooped! This was a great sign! This meant that he didn't have a blockage. The surgeons said he might have had a partial blockage that later correct itself. Since they knew things were moving through, they decided that he could start on his feedings again. This time they were going to go a lot slower (something I think they should have done the first time).
It took a week and a half to get Owen back to his regular feeding rate. But, it worked and we were able to go home on the 14th of November, just in time for Thanksgiving! Owen did spend another holiday in the hospital, Halloween. However, out of all the holidays, halloween is my least favorite :) so I will count my blessings.
It has been an adjustment to have Owen home with the g-tube instead of the NG tube. Now that we are getting used to it, it is a lot easier. We are so glad we no longer have to put the NG tube down his nose and throat and watch him scream and cry. Now, when he crawls too far from his pump, the attachment to the g-tube just pops off and we just have to put that back on to the button on his stomach! yay! no more hurting him :)
