A bit of a setback...

McKinley watching Auntie Erin at her bike race last week :)

Last week McKinley had a procedure called a contrast enema done. They basically ran a bunch of barium (liquid you can see on an xray) through her bowels and intestines to see if there were any blockages and make sure she would be ready for her surgery on the 24th.  During that procedure they saw what looked like a narrowing of the lower intestine but were very hopeful that it wasn't as serious as it looked.  So yesterday McKinley had a last minute procedure where they had to put her under anesthesia and scope her rectum/lower intestines to get a better look at what might be going on.  And what they found was what we prayed they wouldn't find.  The scar tissue from her last surgery is causing a narrowing of her lower intestine.  If she were to need to pass something through there it most likely would get stuck and cause a blockage.  So Dr Healey determined that her surgery next week will need to be postponed and we are going to try to manually dilate that area in the hopes that we can reschedule the surgery in 2 - 4 weeks.  We will be meeting with Dr Healey on Tuesday so he can show us exactly what he needs for us to do, but it doesn't sound fun at all.  Not for us, and especially not for McKinley.  If our dilation's don't work then she will require a surgery to open up this area before her surgery to take down her ileostomy.  That would mean we're looking at another 2-3 months with the bags!  Nooooo!!!!  So, that is where we are for now.  McKinley on the other hand is happy as a clam.  She came out of her anesthesia grabbing for all the nurses glasses and IV lines, cracking everyone up.  I was told to expect 2-4 hrs in the recovery room and they let us go in less than a half an hour.  That girl is such a trooper!  Hopefully we will know more soon about what our next steps are and I will keep you posted.

Last Surgery of 2011

Getting ready to go swimming at Grandma's, chewing on Auntie Erin's watch :)

On August 23rd McKinley will go in for what had better be her last surgery of 2011!!!  This is the surgery that will be the final step bringing together all the surgeries of the past.  They are hooking up her rectum and we are praying that it works!!  She will be admitted on the 23rd for a bowel prep, just like last time, and her surgery will be on the 24th.  It is supposed to be a 2-4hr surgery, a breeze compared to the last one!  They will take down her ileostomy and we will see our beautiful baby girl without a bag attached to her stomach for the first time since the day she was born!  I cannot tell you how excited I am.  The bags and I are having a hate-hate relationship right now.  I cannot get them to stay on for the life of me so I end up changing her bags 2 or 3 times a day.  They should be able to stay on for up to 3 days, but at the very least 24 hours!  It's a huge poopy mess and usually happens the minute we wake up so it really starts my day off stressful.  And as she gets older she moves more, grabs her bag, gets poop all over everything....ok, no more details, needless to say it's a huge mess and quite frustrating!  I will admit that Tony is much better with getting the bags to stay on than I am, but of course they never come off when he's home!  It's always when I'm here by myself with a hungry or sleepy Brooks screaming in the background.  See, I told you, the bags hate me! :) Anyway, I am counting down the days and repeating to myself only 16 more days, only 15 more days, only 14 more days....
The other awesome part is that once she comes home from the hospital (it's supposed to be about a 5 day stay) she should be done with the hospital for quite some time!  We are hoping to make it through the fall and winter with only seeing Children's hospital for clinic visits.  She will have to have her vascular ring (heart condition) fixed in early 2012, but even having 6 months between hospital stays will be a huge treat for us.  We are so eager to have McKinley home for a stretch of time where she can begin to grow and develop consistently.  She has just recently started trying to sit on her own, and she's eating 2 jars of food a day now!  She is making such amazing progress.  We are so proud of her!
And then there is sweet baby boy Brooks.  He is so sensitive.  Always hugging and cuddling, a total mommy's boy.  He still says "oh wow" & "woah!" and his latest word is "uh-oh" (which actually sounds like "oooh-oooh)  I think he's going to start crawling or walking any day now.  He loves to walk with help, and he's starting to figure out that he can move by rolling and wiggling.  I'm not in a huge hurry though, I have a lot of baby proofing around the house to do!
As always we thank you so much for your prayers.  McKinley's surgeries have gone better than expected so far so we are praying for the same result this time.  Thank you for keeping up with us and her progress and for keeping her in your prayers!!