Bye-bye catheter

Colin got his catheter removed today, and the stitches taken out. And not a minute too soon. I was ready to take the blasted thing out myself. It was always getting in the way, and it kept leaking and making a giant mess.

Last night was the worst (in terms of leakage). Colin was fussing at about 2 a.m. and wasn’t settling down, which is unusual for him of late. So I went in to see what was the matter. (Yes, I’m now sleeping on the couch at the moment because we all seem to sleep better that way. And really, our couch is pretty darn comfortable.) 

Poor little guy was soaked from his armpits to his toes. He was only half awake (and probably freezing) when I picked him up. But, of course, I had to turn on a light to clean him up (just a little one, but it was enough). And by the time I was done stripping off his wet clothes, changing his diaper and messing around with the catheter and bag to try to figure out where it was leaking from … well he was pretty wide awake. 

I knew I was a goner when I snapped the last snap on his jammies and he started saying “Up?” “No Colin, it’s 2 in the morning. We sleep now.” Cute little eyes blink at me, then “Up?” I tried snuggling with him on the bed, but every couple of minutes he would crawl up on me and kiss me several times. Then he’d snuggle back in again, only to repeat it a few minutes later. I love getting kisses from my babies, but not so much in the middle of the night. 

After trying several other approaches, I finally fixed him a bottle and put him back in the crib (I covered the wet spot with a blanket). Of course, his crying woke Ethan up — but Ethan at least was able to get back to sleep pretty quickly. Colin finally fell asleep at 4:00.

John took him to the appointment, and said he did very well. He cried when they took out the catheter tubes and the stitches, but bounced back quickly and was a happy baby again before they left. 

We go back on Thursday to see the surgeon (at the hospital, between his surgeries — we have to keep calling the operating room number and he’ll let us know when he’s between surgeries, at which point we’ll run down to see him). He wants to make sure everything is still healing well — including the hole in Colin’s stomach through which the catheter used to pass. 

We still have a rather large risk that the repair and graft don’t heal properly and everything starts to break down. So we’re hoping and praying that doesn’t happen. Otherwise our surgery in six months will be a repeat of this one, rather than a cleanup like we’re hoping for.