A BIG Surgery is Coming Up

As always, a lot has been going on here at Camp Abby. But before I jump into all of that, let me first say that Abby and Eddie are both walking! They are both at the beginning stages and they look like a couple of drunken sailors at sea. It is a very funny sight. Eddie has done a lot for Abby. Just by doing what he's doing, Abby is doing her best not to be outdone by little brother and is working very hard to keep in front of him. As he is starting to walk more, so is she. And as he is getting better at climbing up on things, or throwing a ball, Abby is right there, practicing the same thing. It is such an amazing thing to watch her do all of these things! The girl that wasn't supposed to do hardly ANYTHING, let alone walk and play!!!! Wooohooo!!!! Anyway, now that Eddie is bigger than Abby (Eddie is 22 lbs, Abby is still at 20 lbs) he is starting to throw his weight around. We have this little push car toy that they love and when Eddie wants it, well he just cruises right over, pushes Abby off and takes over. Abby is not a happy camper when this happens and it becomes your normal sibling rivalry spat over a toy. Oddly enough, this spat is music to our ears! We do have a pretty big surgery coming up though so let me get to that.

About 3 weeks ago, we all went to a park on a Saturday afternoon to enjoy Abby's friend Tavi's 3rd birthday party. It was a great party and everything seemed fine. But on our way home, Abby started throwing up, and I mean throwing up. She was dry heaving like we have never heard or seen before. As a result of all this vomiting, she was extremely thirsty and would drink a lot of water, but it would all come up again. It didn't take us too long before we decided to call the doctor and he told us to go to the ER before she gets too dehydrated. Luckily we got her there early enough and our stay was only 7 hours, which was all the time the docs needed to get an IV in her and fill her up with some fluids to rehydrate her.
Seriously though, all these ER visits, the constant throwing up in the middle of the night, the sudden dry heaving spells like the one I just mentioned, and the pain Abby is always in has got to end! And it needs to end soon. Thankfully there has been a plan in place to help Abby with all of her vomiting, and this little ER visit just shifted that plan into high gear.

Let me break it down it into 3 parts. What's wrong? What's the plan to fix it? How long is the recovery?

What's Wrong?
I think I mentioned before that we know why Abby is constantly throwing up, but for you newbies, let me explain it again. It's like this: You and I have a sphincter at the bottom of our esophagus called the Lower Esophagial Sphincter or LES. This LES opens when food goes down our esophagus and into our stomach and then closes up. Thank Goodness it closes up, because if it didn't, we would throw everything that we ate right back up. Well, that's Abby's problem. She does not have an LES at all. This is why every time we tried to feed her large volumes of food she would throw up. Sure...she can snack here and there and have some cheese puffs, or crackers or whatever, but only in small bites. She can't even come close to eating the amount she needs to eat to give her enough nutrition throughout the day. And by this point, her poor esophagus is really scared from all of the acidic vomit that comes up. It's an absolute miracle that she still likes to eat food. She has a little bit of "oral aversion" which is basically a child's fear or unwillingness to put anything in his or her mouth. If anybody should have oral aversion, it's Abby, but she doesn't.

What's the plan to fix it?
When somebody doesn't have an LES, the plan is to do a fundoplication, commonly called a fundo. This is where the docs will take a part of Abby's stomach and wrap it around her esophagus and make their own LES. Take a look at the following link. It acually has a pretty good diagram and description of the fundoplication procedure. Fundo

How long is the recovery?
Here's the crazy part. Abby will be in the hospital anywhere from 5 days to two weeks. And we won't know just how long until AFTER the surgery because there are so many unkowns about how this surgery will go. First, Abby has a VP Shunt . The shunt (for those of you that didn't click on the link) is there to drain the Cerbral Spinal Fluid from Abby's brain area. It's a catheter that goes into her head and a small tube is attached to it that goes down into her abdomen to drain out. You and I have a little "drain" at the bottom of our skull that allows this fluid to drain down to our spine. Abby's "drain" was clogged at birth when she had her Grade IV brain hemorrhage. This link will explain the hemorrhage more. Anywho, when we do a surgery that is anywhere close to the shunt tube, there is always a concern regarding an infection getting inside the shunt tube, because that means the infection would travel to Abby's head and we would have an entirely new set of problems (huge problems) on our hands.
The other issue is that Abby has a GJ Tube. (Am I getting nuts with these links or what?!) There is a possibility that the doc won't be able to do what he needs to do without taking the GJ Tube out and then re inserting it somewhere else. This would mean that the surgery would no longer be done laparoscopically. Instead Abby would be cut open and have a new GJ Tube placement PLUS a Fundo to recover from. This is the scenario we are REALLY hope doesn't happen. We do not want to have to remove the GJ Tube.
Assuming the GJ Tube is fine, the recovery is about 3 weeks or so before she'll be somewhat used to the fundo. Oh...something I forgot to mention about this fantabulous fundo is that Abby will never be able to throw up again. So if she gets food poisoning or something that requires her to vomit, she won't be able to. It will have to pass through her system the other way. This is no bueno AT ALL but we don't have a choice.

So the prayers will REALLY need to get kicked into high gear and I will certainly keep you all posted. The surgery date is the 29th of August. Put it on your calendar!


We sure love you all and appreciate everyone hanging in there with us. This next hurdle is a big one, so go get some rest. Anybody out there that doesn't pray very much, start practicing now. We're going to need all you got at the end of August. We really really really need this Fundo surgery to go well.


As for now, just enjoy the pics! Thanks again Abby Fans.


Yeahhhh!!! A Beach Day!



Eddie loves running around the wet sand



So does Abby...




Our first time at the Orange County Fair! Abby and Eddie had a blast poking their heads through these things!



Eddie and Momma with the little chicks



Abby squirmed out of my arms to make her way back to the cage with the little chicks in it...



Here we are at the petting zoo. At first they were both a bit apprehensive, but not for long...!




Eddie just went for it and then Abby quickly followed. From here on out, they were totally into petting the animals.



More Petting Zoo...



Abby just couldn't get enough



Check out Abby on her 1st horsey ride! Parents weren't allowed to go into the arena. We were sure Abby would be scared....nope! She was having a great time cruising around on it. She got strapped in tight and off she went. All by herself!



More of Abby on the horsey



Eddie and Daddy on the Bull!



Abby and Momma on Abby's 1st roller coaster ride



Here they are after the ride was over. Abby love it! She wanted more more more!



Abby with her friends!




Here's Eddie chillin' at the pool on the 4th with Daddy's hat on



Family Photo at Dusk on the 4th of July - Check out the sunset



Eddie and Momma watching 4th of July Fireworks... Eddie was NOT very happy about all the noise they made. Eventually he got used to it though.



Abby & Eddie at Eddie's 1st Birthday Party



Eddie couldn't be contained! He was having a GREAT day!



Here is Eddie taking a swing at his very first pinata!