A Life Makeover: Surgery

On December 9th, the little guy had surgery at Hasbro Children's Hospital in Providence. His surgery was to correct his reflux of the bladder. The surgery he had was called a bilateral ureteral reimplantation. The urologist took the tubes that go from his kidney to his bladder, stretched them out and had them go to opposite sides of the bladder. It was very stressful waiting for this surgery to happen because we had no idea what to expect afterwards. Although this is the 3rd surgery he's had, this one was the most invasive so we were anxious to see what recovery would look like for him. When we got to the hospital we were very pleased right from the start at how nice everyone was. The doctor came and chatted with us right away and was very friendly and explained things in such a nice manner. Eric got to play in the play room while he waiting so he was happy as can be before the surgery. When it was time for surgery they had me dress up and go with him to the OR. It is my least favorite part but I didn't want to not go with him either. So they let him drive a power wheel into the OR which I thought was the coolest part of the whole experience. When we went into the OR the doctor chatted with him for a little bit and asked him about his christmas tree, etc. He sat on my lap and they came around me to put the gas mask on. He went right to sleep and I was able to lie him on the operating table and give him a kiss. I hate seeing him like that, it's the worst. Out of all the surgery that is always the part I dread the most. So then we waited for 2 1/2 hours. Throughout the whole surgery they would call the waiting room from the OR and let us know their progress. There was also a tv that showed what his progress was. When the little guy woke up from his surgery he was not happy. He wanted to rip his IV and catheter out. Thankfully they gave him some morphine and he calmed down and fell asleep. We got up to his room and settled in for at least one overnight at the hospital. They had these cool tvs at the hospital. They were touch screen and had a keyboard. You could hook the keyboard up and use that for the tv or for internet access. You could watch movies, play games, or watch tv. It was pretty cool. Eric's cousin Sarah came to visit us at the hospital with her son Zachery that night. She brought the little guy a cookie and a pillow that has a scent in it that is supposed to help sooth children. The first night was a rough night. No matter what kind of medicine they gave him, he was so upset because he wanted to go pee pee in the toilet. He didn't understand the catheter so he kept asking for his diaper. When we put it on him it would kink the catheter or hurt him so we tried not to put it on him or put it on him loosely but when we did this he would say, "You forgot! You forgot to close the diaper!"He was awake off and on until about 3am. I slept with him in the bed at points throughout the night because that seemed to be the only way to relax him. At 3am I noticed that he was getting a rash. They thought it was from the morphine so they stopped giving it to him and gave him tylenol instead and some benedryl. They also gave him something to relax the contractions he was having in his bladder so he could be more comfortable. After this he finally passed out until 6:30. At that point Dr. Elsworth came in and I was never so happy to see her. She took the catheter out right away so he was more comfortable. He seemed to be doing well but about an hour later he started throwing up. It was the only time he threw up thankfully. 2 hours after having the catheter came out he asked to go potty which was a really good sign and he stood up to pee two times within that hour. After that, for the most part he went in a diaper. We were told he needed to walk around to feel better and it might help him eat and pass gas which was the criteria to go home so we were told. It was very painful for him to walk around and he was not very happy about it but he did it for a little bit. We got him walking mainly by enticing him to go tell the nurse that he wanted to go home or he wanted his IV out or whatever other complaints he had. Either way it worked because he was chasing her all over the place. While we wandered the halls there were carolers from Emerson College singing Christmas songs. It was so nice. So we really thought we were not going to be able to go home on Saturday because he wasn't really eating and he hadn't passed gas. However, because he was peeing and walking around they felt like he could handle going home and that he'd be more likely to eat at home where he was comfortable. We were a little bit nervous about taking him but we wanted to get home so bad that it was worth the chance. He was really uncomfortable when we got home. Eric went to get his prescriptions filled but by the time he left every pharmacy was closed but we found out that Walgreens on Park Ave in Worcester (in case anyone needs this service!) is open 24 hours. When Eric got home we gave him the contraction relaxer and tylenol with codeine. He fell asleep at 10pm. He woke up at 1:30am crying because he had gotten out of bed to come find me forgetting how much it hurt to walk. So I went in to calm him down, gave him more medicine and he fell right back asleep. He woke up at 7am because his silkie had fallen out of his bed and he wanted his teddy bear and blankets. I got him all of this and then he slept until 8:30. When he woke up he walked with Daddy's help out into the living room. I was so happy to see such progress and his diaper was full so that was good. So he came and sat with me on the couch and told me that (in regards to walking), "That was a lot of work!" He then sucked down an entire capri sun and went on to have another. It was such a relief to see him doing so well and talking up a storm and he peed on the potty a few times. Unfortunately it didn't last long and he was really upset because his belly and pee pee hurt as he told me. We kept telling him that if he ate his belly wouldn't hurt so much but he refused to eat. I took him outside for a walk in his stroller just to get him some fresh air. When we got inside I put him down in the kitchen and he walked to the living room and climbed on the couch. He was still in a lot of pain and was only drinking, not eating. He even put himself down for a nap in our bed at one point. He woke up but went in the chair and passed back out. When he woke up he felt really warm. He had a low grade fever this whole time which is normal, however when I took his temp it was 102.1. I called the doctor and we contemplated going to the hospital but decided to wait a little bit longer. In the meantime he ate a few scoops of ice cream and drank some milk and slept on the floor. I think he knew we were thinking about taking him to the hospital because he said to me, "I just laying on the floor mama." So he ended up drinking a whole cup of milk and then another cup and a few more scoops of ice cream and he finally perked up. It was such a relief. He was talking and joking around and singing for the first time in days. His temp went down and he continued to drink milk and eat a freeze pop. He still has not eaten actual food besides ice cream (thank you Ben and Jerry and your chocolate fudge brownie ice cream!). I'm afraid that if he keeps drinking milk it's going to hurt his stomach more but I'll take the risk to have him have something in his stomach and be talking and a little more with it. The final excitement of the day is that he finally pooped (I know, thanks for sharing, but seriously this is very exciting in our house!). So we're hoping that tomorrow is the day where he turns the corner and starts to eat. We will re-toilet train when he has a little more control of his bladder but I don't anticipate that it will be too difficult once he feels better. This has been the most exhausting and difficult process. It is so hard to see him in pain and not be able to do anything to help him besides asure him that he is ok.

I wanted to get a picture of his belly before his scar. He basically has a c-section scar now.