Biopsy Results

We received the results of the biopsy today just after lunch. But first... Our morning was great! We arrived at the NICU around 8am as we've done everyday, and were greeted by Jen, Jesh's day nurse, with great results from blood work. His potassium had come back into normal ranges, his bilirubin had finally come down (at first it was hardly dropping at all despite the bili-lights), he was still gobbling up pedialyte from a bottle, and he was wetting his diapers like a champ! We enjoyed holding him while he was awake, and he kept flashing smiles while he slept. We came back to NICU after lunch and were greeted with the same happy baby who stayed awake long enough to scan us over once more before crashing for the afternoon while we waited for pathology results. Shortly thereafter, the pediatrician came in to announce that the biopsy results were back and they confirmed that Jeshua has Hirschsprung's Disease. Despite what we'd been told, we were so hopeful that it would come back negative, that Jeshua would get his bowels moving and we'd be home by mid-late next week. Instead, after a few moments of renewed heartache, we gave our sleeping angel kisses and went home for dinner with our other kids Aaron and Leah. We had a great evening of play (more tears for Melissa) and came back to the hospital to hold our sleeping Jesh for awhile.

The next surgery is scheduled for Friday morning at 9:30. We have an idea what'll happen, but will meet with the neonatal surgeon tomorrow to get precise details and sign consents. Ultimately, when the surgery is complete Friday, Jeshua will have a colostomy coming out of his tummy for 3 to 6 weeks and his bowels will begin healing in preparation for the final surgery.

Now that we have a timeline of upcoming events, we'll likely nail down our schedule for the next week. The social worker and pediatricians are now telling us that they expect us to be able to take Jesh (and his colostomy) home for a few weeks after recovering from the colostomy, but before the final "pull-through" surgery. If he recovers well, that'd be around the last week of January. We can't wait for the day we can introduce him to his home, and work him into "daily life" with his big brother and sister.