First four hours behind us.....

Samuel has been in surgery for four hours and he has many more hours to go. He is stable and they are working away trying to get things figured out.  The immediate issues they are facing in the operating room are:  trying to find a path through all the scar tissue and locate the organs they want to work on, and to come up with a plan for plastic surgery to be able to close his abdomen, which is already quite compromised. They already feel like it will take more additional surgeries to get closure, especially after a full day of major surgery and the skin and fascia being exposed to the air.  Swelling is an issue too, but they said we will see more of that later in the day and next few days following.  The nurses here saw the line up of surgeons posted on the wall in pre-op early this morning. They all said Samuel has the "dream team" of surgeons and that it is very rare to ever see that many of "the bests" working on one patient.  I feel confident that they will do everything they can to help Samuel to reach the best possible outcome.  He was pretty scared this morning and kept falling asleep while they were talking to him. Sleeping is his "coping mechanism" when he's under extreme stress. They said the next few days will be very painful, but they will keep him heavily sedated until the swelling decreases and he is able to manage the pain.   Your prayers are appreciated. I will post another update in a few hours.