Unplanned Surgery

These past few days have been absolutely crazy.... but I wanted to update all our blog family and ask you to pray for our little girl. We ended up at Duke on Friday for what we thought was a stomach bug. Eden got some IV fluids and was send home with zofran - a medicine to help settle her stomach. They told us to come back if she kept vomiting - well, vomiting she did. So we came back last night..... when we got here, her oxygen saturations were low so they did a chest x-ray. Turns out, she has a diaphragmatic hernia - she has a hole in her diaphragm and her intestines and spleen have moved up to where her lung is suppose to be - causing her not to be able to breathe as well (which explains the "grunting" that she has been doing the past week - which I thought was just discomfort of some sort). The doctors are pretty stunned as this is not something they typically see on a healthy 6 month old. From what they have told us, this is usually only found at birth (b/c the baby cannot breath) or after a major trauma (like a car accident). They went back over all her scans she has done here and it was not there on previous scans. They think she may have always had a small hole in her diaphragm and something has now caused her bowel and spleen to push up through it. This may also explain a lot of her issues feeding. So we were admitted to the pediatric unit and are scheduled for surgery this afternoon. We are unsure of the time yet, but will update as soon as we know anything else. This is pretty major surgery and it may last 3-4 hours. She will have to be in the PICU (intensive care unit) for at least one night. She will then be here at Duke for at least a week. We are pretty stunned at this point as we thought we were just bringing her in for a stomach bug and dehydration, but we are confident that the Lord is with her and will bring her through. Please pray for her little body - for strength and comfort. Please pray for the doctors (Dr. Rice) that will be performing her surgery that he will have stable hands and the knowledge to know what is going on with our precious little girl. We will update throughout the day and week, so please check back. 

Stephanie, Josh and Eden.