The Impossible

One might say my daughter has never been one to follow the rules.

When Maggie was discharged from the hospital after her surgery, the surgeon gave me quite a long lecture on the risks of Maggie gagging, retching, and attempting to vomit. The Nissen Fundoplication is not armor, he said. Every time Maggie gags it puts pressure on the internal sutures, and could cause the surgery to fail. She will not be able to burp, and it will be impossible for her to vomit. Someday, YEARS FROM NOW, the surgery may loosen enough for her to do so. But not for a very long time.

How about 9 weeks? Is that a very long time?

On Sunday (a holiday weekend, of course), about 2 hours after her morning feeding, Maggie threw up all over me. It wasn't as large or projectile as she was previously capable of. But it was definite vomiting. Which, as you just read, is pretty much illegal for a post-Nissen kid.

Needless to say, I panicked. What if the surgery failed? What if we were back to square one? What if she began losing weight? What if? What if? What IF?

We called our regular pediatrician (as we had just spoken to the surgical resident the night before about some weepy blisters and redness around the G-Tube site), who told us to watch for any "repeat performances". So I did. Every cough made my heart race. Every gag brought tears to my eyes. But Maggie didn't vomit again.

We called the surgeon's office on Tuesday, and the nurse got us an appointment today. After waiting over an hour (!), we finally saw one of the surgical attending physicians. She said that *she* never would have told me that vomiting is "impossible". Well, your PARTNER told me that, and that's why we're here, thankyouverymuch. She said that the Nissen wrap can't be airtight because food wouldn't be able to get INTO the stomach. Especially in champion pukers like our girl, vomiting is rare, but indeed possible. She went on to say that Maggie may vomit again. But as long as it isn't repetitive, and her belly remains soft, it probably doesn't mean the surgery has failed.

The redness and blisters around Maggie's G-Tube site are likely stomach acid burns. Oh, wonderful. My poor baby has BURNS on her skin from stomach acid. Ick. I will continue to treat it at home topically, with Neosporin or Bacitracin ointment. Once the area is healed, I can use Vaseline or even Desitin as a protective barrier around the tube.

I knew, when she came into the world at 26 weeks, that my Magoo was going to be a handful. Someone remind her of all this when she's 12 and hates my guts...

~Sara