Next Tuesday Katelyn will have her surgery to repair her birth defect. I’m getting anxious as the days grow closer but I am trying to stay positive (and not really “think” about it).
So here are the medical details of how the surgery is planned to go. Dr. Frantz is planning on opening her up vertically. The intestines are still in the Omphalocele sac and he believes they might even be attached to the sac itself so he may need to take extra time to remove the intestines from the sac. He will then stretch the fascia and connect the stomach muscles together. If he cannot pull the fascia together or there is not enough give, he will have to use a biological mesh called AlloDerm. AlloDerm is basically all natural (donor skin) so the body would have a very low risk for infection from it. He will then close her up and will try to make a belly button. There may not be enough of her real skin to close the outside or make a belly button so he might have to use some of the Omphalocele sac temporarily and next year when she has grown more, go back and do “cosmetic” work to use her real skin. Dr. Frantz will use dissolvable sutures so we won’t have to worry with getting staples or stitches removed. Katelyn will likely be in the hospital 4-5 days. Obviously, I’m hoping she’s a rock star and is on the lower end of that estimate. The most worrisome part is when she wakes up and the couple days after when the pain will be the worst. I know how painful a c-section is as an adult, so having abdominal surgery as a 3 year old is probably 1,000 times worse; but then again, children are resilient and she may be up and raring to go in a couple days!
Please keep her in your thoughts and prayers during the days leading up to next Tuesday. We want her 100% healthy!
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