The morning of the 15th I was taken up to have another quick cuddle and then Alex and Jon were whisked off next door.
When Jon returned, a surgeon and his resident came over shortly after too. Dr Hamilton. He stood there in his smart suit, and explained in words of one syllable or less what the situation was. Jon and I were so tired and Dr Hamilton clearly had the patience and compassion to go easy on our already exhausted brains. Basically, he says, Alex’s esophagus was in two parts. It didn’t connect. They had no idea how long the gap was between the two. They also suspected he had a fistula, a hole, between the esophagus and trachea. This condition came with several other physiological issues but not to worry about that yet. They were running tests on him right now to see if he was strong enough for surgery. Once they had a complete picture of his condition they’d let us know, but his intention was to operate as soon as possible that day. He shook our hands and off he went, back to Children’s.
We heard soon after that Alex was deemed healthy and strong enough, all 5lb something of him, to undergo the surgery that afternoon. I didn’t see him before he went. I tried napping but found myself looking at photos and wondering if we had made the right choice with surgery at only a day old. Hour after hour passed. At around 1130pm, over 5 hours after surgery began, Dr Hamilton appeared in our room again. This time in scrubs, and clearly straight from the OR. He said everything had gone wonderfully, Alex had short gap Type C with a fistula as suspected. They had been able to fix both issues successfully. Alex was now in recovery, with a breathing tube and vent and would be kept asleep a while to help prevent movement of the newly attached esophagus. He recommended we get a good nights sleep as Alex would need us strong for his healing and recovery, but that he felt it was very positive overall and he was very pleased. I think I hugged him. I don’t remember!
That night we both slept better than we had the night before. I couldn’t wait for morning to come so I could go over and see our tiny warrior.
The Ginger Warrior 