December :-)

Let's see.....beginning of December and of course there has been action !!!

Zachary continues to be on his 24 hour feeding pump! We are still struggling with him getting enough calories to "maintain and gain" in regards to his weight. He is still at 40, but needs to get to 50 an hour in order to gain. His body just can't handle even one more ml an hour. When we put him on 41, he just "looses" it all through diarrhea. The doctors have switched his formula and that still has no difference. His stitches are healing nicely and he is showing interest in food. The problem is that four bites of applesauce or yogurt are not significant enough to help with the difference in calories a day!

He spent the night in the hospital on December 2nd and had another tube replacement /sedated procedure on Wednesday the 3rd. For three nights prior to Tuesday he wasn't sleeping and said tummy owie a lot! I think he knew a problem was starting, but couldn't tell us all the details. His tube somehow wraps itself on top of itself or around his small intestine too frequently! The doctors think that if this happens again they might want to close up the current hole, and create a new more "direct route" to his small intestine that would have less tubing. This might mean that it wouldn't get caught and blocked so frequently. The decision on this procedure is still out----hopefully we don't have to make that decision. It would be another surgery, and incision.

Otherwise, he is in very good spirits lately. His surgeon said he can start having soft/solid foods soon. However, with those foods we have to be very careful to not "overfill" his stomach....otherwise the stitches might POP!! This won't really be a problem since he doesn't want to eat much by mouth. The few items he does want to eat by mouth that would be soft/solid are full of fat and sugar which again goes right through him. AHHH! His eating ability is limited, but still complicated.

Dominic is continuing to go to pre-school full time and loves it. There is no way he could be at home with Zach all day, as Zach is a full time job himself. Garrett is going to Kindergarten and kids country and keeping his time filled. He has a hard time when Zach has to go to the hospital, but he recovers quickly. I realized how "normal" all this is to Garrett when a friend was over and asked him why his brother had a tube into his belly button, and his response was, "Well, first it isn't a tube into his belly button it goes into his stomach and intestine thing. The white stuff in the bag is his food, because he just doesn't like food like us....AND it goes all the time so he can grow (but he doesn't look bigger to me!) and that's it." Considering all that said, I really think five year olds might understand more than we give them credit for :-)

Thanks again for every ones kind thoughts and prayers. We are still not out of the woods yet, and until he can reach his daily "target" we won't be. At this point it is up to Zach's body when it wants to take more in, and knowing Zachary it will be a slow process.