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I can't believe that it's been almost 2 weeks since my last post and very little has changed.
Matthew's condition since his second operation has remained stable. He was taken off the ventilator on the 5 December and onto oxygen. All his medication had also been removed and we have just been trying to wait patiently for the bile in his stomach to clear so that he can begin feeding.
My son and daughter-in-law are sitting with what feels like gallons of breast milk, expressed and labelled ...

Today was another milestone reached in our precious little Matthew's life.
The Prof pushed all of his intestines into his abdomen, removed the bag and stitched him closed.
The operation seemed relatively uneventful compared to last week's major surgery and the Prof and anesthetist came out looking pretty happy.
The Professor is a man of few words, he just walked out of the NICU unit (where they performed the operation due to the fact that it is too risky to move Matthew) gave ...

Surgery to move the intestines out of the diaphragm and into the abdominal cavity was scheduled for sometime after 5pm on Monday 14/11/2014.
Fortunately my husband and I went home from work slightly early to sort out all the farm animals on our small holding before going to the hospital for the BIG wait.
At about 9pm Prof Beale began what was about a two hour operation, not without it's complications.
The intestines (it seems like only the intestines had moved into the diaphragm, ...

After being airlifted from Benoni to Johannesburg Matthew was stabilised and grandparents were permitted to see him briefly.
My first viewing of a very special little boy.
All I could think of when looking at him was how can a little baby who looks so perfect on the outside be so broken on the inside.
The paediatrician looking after him explained what they were going to be doing and shared two of Professor Beale's (the paediatric surgeon who would be operating on him) success ...

Our precious little grandson, Matthew Marx was born on Thursday, 20/11/2014 at 5:30pm by c-section. The first indication that we had that there was anything wrong with him, was when my son came running up the stairs from the theatre to the waiting room to say that he was battling to breath and had been taken to ICU.
From thereon began our hours of stressing, waiting and praying.
I assumed that it was nothing critical and was in for a BIG surprise when the paediatrician and gynea came ...