Thursday was filled with big highs & lows. We expected the surgery would take 30 – 40 minutes. When the hour mark passed, we started to worry something had gone terribly wrong. In fact, I even cried during the long wait.
When Dr. Manfredi finally came out to the waiting room, all of our worries were quickly taken away. Dr. Manfredi said the surgery itself was a huge success! Lucas’ lower esophagus held it’s size of 10mm since the last surgery 3 weeks ago. So Dr. Manfredi barely worked on the lower area this time around and dilated the area up to 12mm. Instead, he spent the majority of time on the upper stricture where he increased this area from 15mm to a good 18mm. Very impressive.
Then, Dr. Manfredi threw us for another loop. He surprised us by saying Lucas’ esophagus is doing so well with holding the size that he wanted to cancel next week’s surgery and instead have us go home early! We already changed our return flight home to this Saturday. This is the 1st time we have ever gone to Boston & spent less time than planned. Yippee!
Our next surgery is Thursday, December 4. For now, Dr. Manfredi only has us booked for one surgery. So, we could have another 4 day trip to Boston during the 1st week in December.
Four weeks between surgeries may seem like a short period of time to you. But, this is the 1st time we’ve gone 4 full weeks. This is a big step to getting more & more time between surgeries! Actually, Dr. Manfredi even mentioned the idea of waiting until January for us to come back. But after some time to think about it, he decided on the 1st week in December.
On the down side, Lucas had a significant amount of pain this time around. He cried from pain for the 1st 8 hours after surgery. The worst thing a parent can see is their child in pain. Lucas was on IV hospital level doses of Tylenol & Motrin which normally is more than enough to eliminate most of the pain. At 6pm, Lucas threw up blood after a bottle of formula. This was a moment of extreme concern for us. In the past, Lucas has never thrown up blood after a dilation. Our nurses were very helpful & even stayed in the room with us for a while until Lucas started to calm down.
In the end, Lucas did eventually get past the pain & even was able to get some sleep during the night. All that matters now is we are going home on Saturday! Eager to spend Thanksgiving with our families!!!