My Surgery... a story by Matthew Schiller
May 19, 1997
I became sick on Tuesday night and vomited. On Wednesday and Thursday I continued vomiting and Mommy and Daddy took me to the doctor. She said I might have 1 of four things wrong and she wanted to do some more testing. So, on Friday for lunch, I got to go to a radiology center. Here they gave me Barium while I lay under a big machine. The machine allowed Mommy, Daddy, and the doctor to see me eat the Barium from the INSIDE! They watched my stomach and then found the problem. We then went, on Saturday morning, to a different doctor, so they could do a sonogram on me to make sure they were correct in what was wrong with me.
Well as it turns out I had Pyloric Stenosis. This is a condition in which the circular muscle at the outlet of the stomach (the pyloric sphincter) is narrowed, causing an obstruction that blocks the flow of food into the small intestine. This means that when Mommy or Daddy fed me the food would go into my stomach, but could not be digested because very little could move into my intestines. Then I would just vomit up the rest of the food as it kept accumulating in my stomach. Pyloric Stenosis occurs in approximately 1 of 500 to 700 newborns and is more common in first born males. This condition occurs in the first weeks of life. The cause is not known, and the only solution is surgery. There is NO chance of reoccurrence after surgery.
On Saturday after the sonogram, we checked into the hospital. I got a big room with a TV and everything. Then the doctors tried to put an IV in me, and it took 3 of them 6 tries to do it! They kept poking and sticking me for over one hour... I was mad!.. Just listen. Finally they called my surgeon and he did it NO problem. Sunday morning at 8:00 am I went down to surgery. At 8:05 I said good by to Mommy and Daddy and went all by myself into the operating room. The nice people wearing green told me to sleep and I did! While I was asleep, they cut open my tummy then widened the narrowed pyloric sphincter so that food could pass from my stomach to my small intestines. Then they used some small dissolving stitches to close up the cut. Below you can see me pointing at the cut. 
At 8:40 the doctor told Mommy and Daddy everything went well, and ten minutes later they were there talking to me in the recovery room. Then, after about 15 minutes, they took me back to my room. I was only out of my room for 2 hours!
Then Mommy and Daddy had to stay up ALL night long and feed me every 3 hours. I tried to help them by not letting them sleep. I did great and the doctor let me go home around 10am on Monday morning! I am home now and the cut will heal soon. Mommy and Daddy do not have to do anything special with it and I should have no scar! The only bad thing is that if I was older I would have gotten gifts and ice cream and stuff. I am so young that everyone just looks at me and says "ahhh.. poor cutie!" Oh well no more hospitals for me...
Return to my main page