So we loaded up bright and early Monday July 18th to head to the airport in LR. Our flight was scheduled to leave at 7:40 a.m. We arrived in Chicago, to find that our plane had been given away and we were not only delayed but they didn't know when we'd be leaving OR from what gate. After a couple hours we finally got boarding info and got onto the plane. We arrived in Boston, just about an hour later than we wer supposed to. Popped on the subway and headed to the house we were staying in (It's owned by Boston Children's hospital). Got all checked in there and then went exploring a bit.
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| Family Inn we stayed in while we were there. |
Tuesday, the 19th, we had our Pre-Op appointment. It was mostly just a bunch of talking and going over what would happen and making sure she was healthy enough for surgery. We were told to call between 3 and 5 to get our scheduled surgery time. We were told to be at hospital at Noon for a 1:30 p.m. surgery.
Wednesday, the 20th, we arrive at hospital at Noon. Hang out in Pre-Op for quite a while, Caity is nervous, upset about not having eaten or being allowed too and surgery is delayed for a while. Finally Heading to OR triage area, where they are prepping her for surgery. Anestesiaologist pops in to discuss things with us and her and asks what she wants her mask to smell like. After thinking about it for a while, she picks Cherry.
Uro intern comes by and autographs her belly. Talks to her and us about surgery and tells us he'll be back soon to take us back.
Nurse brings her goodies, a Webkinz elephant, a coloring book and crayons, and a balloon. The child live advocate woman brings her a DS to play while we hang out waiting to go back.
Finally it is time. ONly one of us can go back with her while they put her under, she picks me. So I leave Dh with all of our stuff and go back with her.
She panics and freaks out, fighting the anesthesia. Pinches her nose shut with one hand and covers her mouth withthe other. It takes a while, but finally she calms down enough to let hte gas seep in and she's gone in 60 seconds. I leave my baby and go back in the pre-op triage area. The nurse takes DH and I to the surgery waiting room where they will update us througout the surgery. We've been told it should take around two and ahalf hours. By now it is almost 2 hours after we were scheduled for surgery. Dh and I have not eaten all day as we couldn't in front of her. The nurse tells us to go eat and be back at 5 and they'll have an OR update for us.
But before we can eat we have to run to Best Buy because DH's cell phone has died completely and we can't go without it for two weeks. We get back to the surgery waiting area at 5 and the nurse tells us things are going well and tehy will be done shortly. She tells us we can leave but to be back by a quarter to 6. WE go down to the cafeteria (because we still hadn't eaten) So we gobble up some food and make it back up to the waiting area just 15 minutes before Dr. Retik comes out of the OR to talk to us.
He tells us that surgery went very well. They reimplanted the ureter on teh left side as planned and found nothing to worry about on the right side. WHEW! He says that he was very happy with the procedure and when she was all finished in the OR they'd have us come back to the PACU (like CCU).
About an hour later, we finally get to go back to the PACU. Caity's coming out of it, but she's very agitated and trying to remove her IV, so the nurse gives her some morphine and she goes back to sleep. When she wakes up the second time, she's much better and requesting Food. She gets a popsicle. We spend about 3 hours in teh PACU. We had been told in PRE-OP to expect to be there the first night, but after the 3 hours, we move to the transplant floor. A private room.
She recovered in the hospital wonderfully, aside from her being irritated by the IV and catheter (I don't blame her) all went well. We were released Friday the 22nd, to go back to the house until our POST op appt. We left with lots of new meds, and a No- Bath order.
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| Plus one more that was in the Fridge |
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| No bath for now. But our incision isn't too bad. |
Post op went very well, her kidney and Ureter were both still swollen, but that was normal for a week post op and the severity of her reflux. Repeat kidney u/s in 4-6 weeks here in AR and a follow up in Boston in 6 months or so to see how the bladder is coming along.
Thanks to all for the prayers.
