Well, L's surgery is done, and she's bounced back remarkably quickly! We were up at about 5:00 a.m. on Monday to get ready to go, which was not an easy feat. We arrived at admitting at the Children's Hospital at 8:00, and L and her monkey both got special bracelets. Then we waited in one waiting room, had a pre-surgical check-up and got changed into hospital garb, waited in another waiting room where we spoke with her surgeon and the anesthesiologist. It was very impressed by how thoroughly everyone explained what would happen next, how child-friendly all of the areas were, and how well everyone dealt with both L and us!
The surgeon explained that the procedure L would have usually takes about 10 or 15 minutes, but that she expected it to take longer because of L's unusual anatomy. When the anesthesiologist came out, he let L choose a flavour. She chose strawberry for herself, and banana for monkey ;-) When the nurse came to get L, she walked away so calmly and bravely...no big deal! After about 40 minutes, the surgeon came back to speak to us. She felt good about how the procedure had gone, but had discovered that L's anatomy was a little more unusual than she expected. We've known for quite awhile that L has two poles on her right kidney, with two ureters that both have reflux. What she didn't realize is that the second ureter is located very near the mouth of her bladder. If it was any lower, she would actually have issues with incontinence!
So, she'll go back for a VCUG in November to see if the procedure has fixed the reflux (which I am NOT looking forward to...she won't be sedated, and she remembers that it hurts!). If it has, we'll be able to take her off of the antibiotics. Hopefully, that will be the end of infections. If she gets more infections, the problem may be with the kidney itself...which will be a whole new path to travel down.
When L woke up from her "magic sleep" she was pretty disoriented, and tore out her own IV (SO like her!), cried a bit, and was pretty upset. She calmed down after a cuddle and we were able to head back to the recovery area. Because she had torn out her IV, we needed to encourage her to drink a LOT so that she'd have to pee... the requirement for us to be able to go home. She liked the jello, popsicle, and Treehouse on the TV, but got pretty upset the first time she needed to use the bathroom. Once she had enough fluid though, she was able to go pee...and we could go home. She even asked to stop at "Old McDonald's" to get some fries for the ride home ;-) She was pretty sleepy for a few more hours, but by bedtime...she was back to her usual self! Unbelievable!
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