Daniel Progress 21:45

Daniel got out of surgery after a two hour operation at 10:00.

The doctor said it was the most complicated hernia he has ever seen. Appears everything was growing around everything.

The situation was that the bowel had come through the hernia and was next to the skin. This is why Daniel never seems to sleep for long periods as he was always "squeezing" - not that the amount of poo decreased! It appears that part of his testes were mixed up in everything. They also found two hydrocoels in the area which were drained.

Anyhow, the hernia has not been surgically closed up - it can heal normally (many do) or everything could slip through again at any time (and they will have to operate again). We'll have to monitor it for the next few years!

The bowel has been pulled back through. The concern now is that it is lying correctly - the overnight stay should help determine this as he'll vomit everything up if it isn't. When Stephen visited at 18:30, he had not vomited anything up - two hours after his feed - that is good. He has also urinated which is also good.

Daniel is actually quite relaxed although a little lost with the strange surroundings - it is his first visit to Neonatal ICU. He was given some morphine and is on a drip.

Our urologist had a nightmare of a day - he finally finished his schedule of operations at 20:00 (nice to know he is prepared to work when the rest of the world has seriously slowed down for Xmas). Only then was he able to check on Daniel. He phoned us twice at home to say all is well thereafter - quite nice to get that service.

If all goes according to plan, our son will be home tomorrow morning.