Moved

Alasdair continues to do well. Well enough that they booted him out of the NICU today and into a regular room. The bummer is that Jess and I also lose our private room and are staying in the same room as Alasdair. It would be great, except that we also share the room with another patient and her family. They're watching Fear Factor right now. Anyhow, you can find us in the on the 4th floor of the Giraffe Zone in room G4018. I think visiting hours are the same, 10am-8pm.

MRI results did come back this morning. They detected some bleeding but everything looked consistent with normal birth trauma. They said they'll note it but it really should take care of itself. The neurologist was not overly concerned and it didn't sound like there would be any further mention of it unless other adverse symptoms manifest.

I also spoke with the surgeon scheduled to be performing the surgery on Thursday. He gave me a few more details about the procedure. Normally they make a small incision very low on the abdomen from which they can biopsy his colon to definitively find the last point with healthy ganglion cells. It is at that point that they will cut his colon and pull it through the unhealthy intestine and re-affix it to his little bum. In this case however, since he already has a 2 1/2 inch incision on his belly from the exploratory surgery, they are planning on reopening it and perhaps extending it a little if they need to. Why make two scars on the kid when you can make do with one large one, right?

I also learn that Jess and I will be expected to dilate his, uh, 'rear' for the next few months following the operation. Another effect of the disease is a hypertrophy in his sphincter muscles causing extra tightness. We will essentially be doing physical therapy with him to help correct it.

Oh, parenthood.