Want to See an Omphalocele?

On Wednesday I got to see Willa's omphalocele completely bare.  New skin growth is visible at the base of the om. In person you can see the differentiation of the two organs contained within the om - the liver and a portion of the bowel.

The om does not cause Willa any pain because it doesn't have any nerve endings. Again, right now it is roughly the size of an oversized tennis ball. Once the prosthetic is created we will begin to slowly push everything back inside.

Daren and I are doing the application of the silvadine and wrapping everything in gauze. Willa is fairly cooperative. We swaddle her arms underneath her as shown in the picture below. Next we have to goop it fairly thick with the silvadine and put a small roll of gauze on each side for stability.  The final step is wrapping the entire om in the gauze and securing it with tape. It is hard for the nurses to not step in and help us but they realize we need to figure this out on our own.