Progress is Progress

Jess updates:

As it turns out, Phineas will need TPN longer than originally expected. He was scheduled to come off it altogether in a week, but now they are upping his dose. He lost some weight, became quite dehydrated, and his ileostomy output increased. All this leads the doctor to believe that he's not absorbing fluid and food as well as he should, and his nutrition and TPN balance is in question again. He said Phineas has been making progress right along, and while this is a setback, it's not an unexplained one. This is the way it goes for shortish gut kids. It's all about the nutrition. Everything else will fall in line. We need to find the right combination of IV fluid and calories for him to continue growing until they hook his intestines back together. The doctor said we should look at this as fifteen steps forward and just a handful of steps back, since it's amazing Fin grew at all considering he's not using most of his plumbing, including the parts of his colon that absorb fluid.

Fin's also been exploring some foods! He hasn't quite grasped the swallowing and tends to want to protect his airway primarily. But he likes bananas, carrots and oatmeal the most. Hey - progress is progress!"