8/16/2009 - 2nd surgery

Today Mackenzie had surgery at 7:30 am. After an hour the Dr. called us to give us an update because it was taking longer than he had originally told us. The news was, he was taking some of the bowel out and she was stable, but she is still very sick. After another hour or so they came out from surgery. The average baby her age has 250 cm. Mac now has 88 cm. This is what is called short bowel syndrome and people do live with this affliction. However, she is in a gray area where she might be ok or she might not and need a transplant, it is too early to tell at this point. Either way she will need to be on what's called TPN which is a nutritional supplement, which will be put in under her neck, thru an IV. This is necessary because with the shortened bowel she can not absorb all the nutrients she needs to. The only problem with this is that the TPN will eventually destroy the liver. At this point there is nothing more they can do. So, the goal is to get her weaned off the TPN or find a new organ before the liver is destroyed. She will also need a feeding tube put in her stomach, which they're going to try slowly to feed her food thru, in a couple weeks. Through all this she is still a very sick baby and there are many different things going on inside her. The Dr's said that she has been better they expected throughout the day since her surgery.