Battle Wounds

Once again, today didn't go as planned. We were told that Brady's surgery would take place at 3:20 p.m. Ava and I went back to school this morning. Ali's dad was going to drop Ali off at the hospital in the late morning, so she could be there with Brady before the surgery.

Since we knew the surgery schedule could change, Ali was going to text me with updates. Depending on when Brady went to surgery, I was going to go up to the hospital before he was wheeled down to the operating room or after he came back.

I received a phone call at 10:00 a.m. from the surgeon saying they were bringing Brady down to the operating room now. Ali hadn't left for the hospital yet. I called Ali and could tell she was disappointed she wouldn't be there to see him before the operation. She said, "I wanted to see his perfect body one last time before they cut it open".

Ali arrived at the hospital at 10:45. She sat in Brady's nursery area, talked to the nurse, and waited for him to come back.

At 11:45 they wheeled Brady back into the room. The surgeons and nurses met to go over a recovery plan for Brady. They have him on heavy doses of pain killers and are starting him with a sugar water diet through an IV.

The nurses were surprised that Brady came back into the room without a ventilator. It's a great sign that he was strong enough to breathe on his own almost immediately after the surgery.

The doctors said the surgery went as expected. They used a laparoscopic technique where they made a couple of small incisions in his abdomen (one above the tube and one under the belly button) and inserted a tiny telescope that helped the surgeons see the stomach and surrounding organs.

Ali said he briefly opened his eyes a couple of times. However, he spent most of the afternoon sleeping and recovering.

I made it up to the hospital around 4:00. Brady started crying and seemed to be in pain. Ali sat down in a chair and held Brady for the first time since the surgery. Brady calmed back down again almost immediately.

It was strange to see Brady surrounded by so many tubes again. He has an IV in his hand and two tubes coming out of his belly. They are using them now to vent and drain his stomach, but eventually we will use them to feed him into his stomach or intestine. His body is once again more swollen due to fluids from the surgery.

We're hoping for a quick recovery for Brady. We appreciate all of your messages and prayers.

With love,

Tyler, Ali, Ava, Casey and Brady