SURGERY SUCCESS!!

It is now just after 11:00 am and Dawson should be back from surgery any minute. The surgeon just came in to talk to us and said that everything went really well. They went in and found that just into the large intestine Dawson had some scarring from NEC(the infection that started this whole thing). They made a small incision in his bowel and widened it by stretching it out a little bit. They didn't have to remove any more bowel, which is great. He is back together and should be eating in a week.

They found the reason for his sickness. Sometimes in healthy people you don't realize that you are carrying certain viruses, but to someone that has a compromised immune system it hits them really hard. Dawson is now in isolation with two other babies. They are all carrying the intro virus. This is a GI virus and will go away in about 7-10 days. It is really a good time for us to head back to Idaho for a week, because if I am with Dawson I could catch it then pass it on to Mallory and that wouldn't be good. They will just treat his symptoms and make him comfortable. He will probably stay on the ventilator for the next couple of days, which will give him a nice, and much needed rest.

While they were doing the surgery they noticed that he also has a couple of hernias. When little boys are developing in the womb their testicles start out up by the kidneys and gradually work their way down to where they should be. When they do this there make holes in the muscle. Usually when a baby is born these muscles have mended themselves and there isn't a problem. It is common in premature babies for this not to happen. When fluid gets into the muscle it causes a hernia and they just have to go in and sew up the hole. It is a very minor surgery and will have to be done once Dawson is totally healthy. We don't know if it will be before we get him home or after. There are also additional issues with his head. I have to talk to the neurosurgeon. From a EEG they just did they found that there are more parts of the brain that are "dead" than there were before. I am sure that Dawson will get an MRI so they can tell us where those parts are before too long.

We are very confident that all will be fine with Dawson. From the beginning Ryan had the impression that Dawson would have to work a little harder. He is definately putting up a fight. He will over come this!

Thanks to all of you for your prayers and for fasting with us today! We are definately being blessed and have a great deal of peace about all that is happening to our sweet little boy. We cannot wait until we can take him away from here healthy, and let you all meet him. You will all get to experience the feeling of peace and sweetness that we always feel when we are with him. What a blessing he is!

We love you all and will let you know how everything progresses!

Love, The Lindstroms