Six weeks ago, Sam was diagnosed with Achalasia, a disease of the esophagus, where the lower muscle has quit working and makes it hard for food and drink to reach his stomach, if at all. We can look a lot further back and see symptons of this disease we had never heard of, but Sam's loss of 25 pounds was the most concerning to us and eating became very frustrating for him, to the point he just quit. During the past six weeks, we have done a lot of research on Achalasia as well as the best treatments, doctors and hospitals to help Sam through this. With a lot of help from the doctors at Children’s Mercy, we decided that a Heller Myotomy was the best treatment to return Sam to normal. This surgery cuts the lower muscle to allow food to reach the stomach. They will also do a fundoplication which will wrap some of the stomach around the esophagus to help stop acid reflux from happening after the surgery.
Today is the day for Sam’s surgery. It has been a roller coaster ride of a lot of up and down days, flus, colds, rescheduled appointments, tests and even the surgery, but it has finally arrived and while we wish this week was already over, we are so looking forward to getting him better. So many of our family and friends have been praying for Sam and we have already seen so many answers and it has meant so much to us and to Sam. Thank you!
Sam’s Hospital Diary
6:00 am I arrived at Children’s Mercy Surgery. I could hardly sleep last night, I was anxious to get here.
7:00 am I saw a bunch of nurses and Dr. St. Peter and Dr. Holcomb, my surgeons. Dr. Roberts also came to see me, he is going to put a camera down my esophagus before my surgery.
8:00 am My surgery nurse, came to take me. She let me take Smelly, my favorite bear, with me to surgery. Dad and Mom had to go to the waiting room and I have to go to sleep. I chose bubble gum gas, to put me to sleep.
8:30 am Dr. Roberts told my parents that my esophagus looks great on the inside and that his job was done and he was going to let the surgeons take over.
9:00 am The nurse called my parents, they are starting the surgery. It should last 2-3 hours.
11 am The doctors sewed me up in all 5 places and went down to tell my parents that everything went Great! Excellent! Dr. St Peter showed them step by step pictures of my surgery, yuck. Dr. Holcomb who has done about 15 Heller Myotomies said it was the easiest and best one he has ever seen done.
Noon My parents met me at Reunion Avenue and they took me to my room, I didn’t feel so great and excellent! Just really tired, and on a scale of 1-10, I rated my pain about a 2, but I was slowly moving it up every few minutes, so they gave me some pain medication.
1:00 pm It worked, I am zonked out.
7:00 pm I watched my favorite show, American Idol. I pick Chris to win it all. Not the bald guy, but the guy with lots of hair.
I fell asleep before it was over and slept pretty good through the night.
6:00 am It has now been 24 hours since I got here and I am really ready to go home. If the machine by my bed beeps one more time, I think I will go bonkers! I am still having them give me pain medication about every couple hours. This morning I will have a barium swallow to see how things are going in my esophagus. They won't give me anything to eat or drink since my surgery, but as soon as I have my barium swallow they will give me drinks. Dad and mom read everyone's comments to me, they made me smile, but not laugh! That is just too painful to think about right now.
