Surgery #4 is in the books and we're on the mend. And Leah is amazing!! We checked into Minneapolis Children's Hospital on Monday morning around 8:30. They called us back shortly afterwards to get prepped for a 10:15 surgery. Leah got into a gown, and many different doctors and nurses came to talk to us about the surgery and what would be happening that day. Unfortunately they were running behind so Leah didn't get called back to surgery until 11:30. She was such a trooper and didn't complain too much. She was a little bit hungry and restless but otherwise she did great.
Finally it was time to go, and she started crying when they came to get us. I was able to carry her back into the OR and laid her down on the table. They gave her some laughing gas to drift off to sleep, and she's still talking about how the gas smelled like nail polish. Then the next thing I knew, she was out. It doesn't matter how many times I've done it before or how much I prepare myself, leaving her on the table is a heart-wrenching thing to do.
Her surgery itself was just over an hour long. Dr. Vandersteen came out just after 1:00 to tell us how things went. He said it was exactly what he was expecting in there, no surprises. He was able to repair the ureter valve that goes from the kidney into the bladder, and since he was in there, he gave her bladder a shot of Botox. The Botox will help relax the bladder and let it fill with more urine, and also stop it from having spasms that create the reflux. All in all, the surgery was very successful and he thought she'd make a full recovery. We were able to see her about another hour later after they finished waking her up in recovery room, and went up to her room. She was staying in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU). This is where she was 4 years ago for her last surgery, but my view of the PICU is very different with a 5-year old than it was with a 1-year old. For one, she had a regular bed that I could climb into and snuggle her instead of a crib. Also, there's so much more to do to occupy a 5-year old, like BINGO, arts and crafts, movies, and jello. The jello was very high on her list of things she was excited about.
She was completely awesome the whole time. Monday night I slept in her room, and the nurse came in every 4 hours to check her stats and give her more pain meds. Each time, she took her medicine like a champ and went right back to sleep. She never got crabby or fussy about anything. I'm so proud of her. She even got a special visit from Santa Clause! I know I originally didn't want to spend the night in the hospital, but she still had an IV and a catheter in, so I felt more comfortable staying. She had to keep the catheter in overnight so we would have had to come home with it. I can do intermittent cathing but I was a little freaked out by the bag. It was good to keep her there and make sure everything looked good. On Tuesday morning her catheter came out around 9:45 and she had to go potty on her own to make sure her bladder was working and she was getting enough liquids on her own without the IV. All was good so we went home.
We had a quiet day at home yesterday, making sure she was managing her pain and staying hydrated. She's been doing so great and had a good day. Today she was doing better and decided to take her to school for a few hours to get out of the house a bit. She's still getting some pain meds but I'm trying to slow those down. She complains a bit of being sore where her cut is but that's not happening as often. I am a bit concerned about some bruising down by her incision site, and it's starting to get better but something I'm still watching. We'll go back to see her doctor in about 2 months to get additional kidney tests done to see how much better the kidney is looking. For now, I'm cautiously breathing a sigh of relief that things are going well for our favorite little girl.
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