Hello my friends,

I'll be honest and admit that I haven't searched the archives for the
answer to this one, mostly because I don't have the time, as you will see.

First, my son Bobby is doing well, still doing his licking thing at the
breast, not more, not less, and it's all OK with me.  Sometimes I'll spray
milk all over his face, some of it goes in his mouth, and he'll just crack
up, along with the other kids.  It's great fun!  For anyone who doesn't
know the story behind what happened to him, and is interested, someone much
more computer literate than I make a link with his story, so now it is
easier to access.  (For those of you who don't know, he had a chylothorax
after open heart surgery, and we had to make skim breastmilk.  This is the
story of how we were able to do that.)

 http://web3.foxinternet.com/lglessner/bobby.pdf

But in my heart, I truthfully doubt he will ever nurse again unless I get
his face and throat cleared of this NG tube.  There are many reasons why
this tube is not the better option anymore, so I think in the next day or
two, (I am getting cardiology to push surgery along as we speak), Bobby
will be having another surgery for a G tube.

Here's the question, as well as a request to please send us your thoughts
and prayers.  I want to use breastmilk on the stoma to help heal it.  When
he had each of his heart surgeries in the past, I would always try to sneak
a spray of breastmilk onto his healing incision, although I was discouraged
from doing so by the doctors.  They said it would be hard for them to
assess the incision if it was moist from the EBM, and they might interpret
the moisture as the beginning of an infection.  I did it anyway, and blew
on it to dry it before they would see anything.

I would like to do the same thing with this surgery, and I will sneak it if
I have to, but it sure would be nice to educate the doctors and be up front
about the whole thing.  If there is a dressing on the incision, sneaking it
is a major ordeal anyway.  I have heard of nasty stories about granulation
tissue around the stoma, and infections around the site, so being able to
use EBM is especially important to me.

Are there any papers, information, easily accessible articles on the
healing properties of breastmilk?  If there is any information on skin
healing or incision healing specifically, that would be ideal.  I just
don't have the time to search the archives.

Thank you once again for all of your support.  I'll sneak in a short note
to let you know when he is definitely going in for the surgery, and then
another to tell you how he did.

Hugs to everyone,

Trish

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