Friday Feb 15, 2008

Nathen has come through surgery and he is doing verywell. Dr. Laquaglia got about 99.9% of Nathens Tumorout of his tummy. He had to leave a small amount(about2mm) on his artery going to his left kidney. I am sureit is because it was just too risky to or else I knowhe would have gotten it! Nathen did get to keep hisleft kidney(YAY!) but we had to lose his left adrenalgland. His galbladder had to go as well. Dr. Laquagliasaid it was a hard as a rock just like the tumor was.We are now in the ICU unit and we are expected to behere until the end of next week some time. Nathen ishooked up to a ventilater and is on medication whichwill keep him asleep for quite some time. They seem tothink he will heal faster and he wont be able to pullthe tubes out. He came out of surgery with a urinecatheter, a chest tube(to drain excess fluid off) andthe ventilator tube. He started having problems withhis oxygen level and his blood pressure dropping sothey did an xray and found that he had alot of fluidon his right lung. The Dr. decided to put a tube intohis right lung to drain off the excess fluid and theydrained 85ml off and it is still draining slowly.After they drained the fluid the top part of the lungcollapsed so now we have the ventilator pumpingpressure into the lung to keep it expanded. Thenearlier this evening Dr. Laquaglia and the attendingDr. here at this hospital noticed that his urineoutput was very low so they decided to do a bladderpressure test to see if he had some issues with isbladder. The pressure was around 27 which 18 to 20 ishigh so 27 was very high. They put another tubethrough his tummy to drain the excess fluid off of hisabdomen and got a whopping 300 ml and it is also stilldraining some. The drs say this is not too uncommonafter these surgeries none the less it does not makeit any easier to see or watch him go through. I amextremely nervous and emotional right now. Chris(dad)has to leave us on monday and go back home to get backto work and get his stuff packed up to move out of hisapartment and move here for three months with Nathenand I. Please everyone keep praying for my little Man.He has a long way to go. I will keep you updated asmuch as I possibly can. We do not have internet accessin the ICU area and we are not allowed to have ourphones turned on as they will interfere with themachines. So as I can I will update everyone. Thankyou all for all of your support. Amanda