24 posts tagged “surgery”

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The Princess and the pee, part 2

The Princess had her ultrasound yesterday and her ureter looks a lot less swollen than it did, her kidney looks fine, and everything is working. We're on the right "track" but we'll be continuing the meds for at least another 6 months. I'm disappointed about that but the last thing we need right now is another UTI. And potty training girls tend to get UTIs. While it's a nuisance for them, it's really bad for the Princess. Because she is potty training she was able to pee in the "hat" in the toilet and give them a sample. The doc was happy about that. Her urine is clear and that's great.   


Speaking of potty training, we almost had an accident free day yesterday. Her only accident was when we were coming in from outside. She had wanted to pee in the grass since Daddy had her do that but it just wasn't working with Mommy. By the time we got inside and negotiated sitting on the potty she told me she was going in her underwear. 

The exterminator came yesterday for our yellow jacket problem. They're coming back on Friday and will take out some sheet rock to get rid of the HUGE nest in the wall and then patch it up. It is not cheap. But it is cheaper than what they quoted us because my husband refused to do it otherwise. I just want them out of my house. 

It was a beautiful sunny day yesterday, just like Monday. They went outside a little bit with Daddy. I'm sure the days that we do not have doc visits will rain. We've used the pool twice? Three times maybe? It's rained so much or we're out when it's nice. The sun really needs to coordinate with our schedule.

Post a comment Tags: ultrasound, surgery, potty training, reflux, yellow jackets, the princess

What the hell?

I know there's been a relative lack of updation here... I haven't really been in the mood. And I have to fight for the computer all the time. And I don't want to bore people with pregnant talk. Once again I wish vox had custom friends lists like LJ.

We went to a parent night for kindergarten students last week. I was happy to see more than just the one recognizable preschool parent face. There are a couple of kids from preschool going there, one of which is a very nice boy, in addition to our neighbor. SkyWalker is excited about seeing them. I really hope he gets a class with a friendly familiar face. There are 4 classes and only 19-20 kids in each which is exactly how many kids are in his preschool class. The school was just updated so there are smart boards in the classrooms. It all looked pretty cool. I think SkyWalker will be fine. It might take some time, but since it's all day, every day, he should hopefully get used to it quicker than everything else!

Speaking of which, a year ago I had just started my mom's group, and SkyWalker was as shy as could be. Hiding in the bathroom, not talking to ANYONE anywhere we went. He has come so far and it's just so remarkable. Today we had a playdate with one of his preschool friends--the first friend he made--and there was no hesitation, no shyness, no warming up. He immediately started playing like a goofball. It was so so nice to see. This was our first playdate too. It makes me feel so much better... and that I've been doing the right thing.

Next week I'm leaving both Jedi with a lifesaver so I can do the icky glucose test. I've told SkyWalker that he and his sister are going to have a playdate and that Mommy will have to go to the doctor. And while he wants to go to the doctor with me, he also wants to go to Cameron's house right now. The other day he told me that Cameron was his cousin. 

The Princess is continuing to improve. It will be 4 weeks since her surgery this Monday. She was a crazy girl today running and jumping and I didn't have the heart to try to stop her. Her steri strips are off and it looks like there's a stitch coming through. I really REALLY hope it just dissolves on its own without us having to take her to get it yanked out. That will suck. It does not seem to bother her at all. Her incision is probably the same size as it was last time but it looks much smaller since her belly is much bigger. I've been putting vitamin E on it and hopefully it won't be noticeable the older she gets. Her last one was almost invisible.

I'm planning on starting her in gymnastics in the fall. Some of you might remember SkyWalker's brief (one time) dalliance with gymnastics, I think his sister will do better. For one thing, she is a climber and a jumper, and she's been going to meetups and indoor gyms for a while now. And I'm trying to get her best little buddies to join too. So I think we'll last more than one class this time. We'll definitely be needing the distraction... we're both quite attached to SkyWalker. She walks around the house calling his name and looking for him and saying "Doin?" when she wants to know what's he's doing at any given moment. It's pretty cute. She'll have the baby to keep her occuppied, but the baby can't jump. Or put her shoes on for her. Or give her a bowl of goldfish when Mommy's not looking.

Isaac's leg seems to be healing. I don't know what our game plan is. We've been confining him to the leash for months now. It's getting harder and harder. But Vader doesn't want to take him back to the vet and have them say he needs surgery so close to June. I don't know what we're going to do.

Unrelated to anything, we've been having water problems. I know we always have water problems, but this time it's the temperature. Our water has always been really hot. Since having babies we've turned the hot water heater down... and down... and down. It is now a notch about the off position. Guess what my water temp is at the tap? 160 degrees. I've been researching a lot online and whenever there's a problem it's always with water that's NOT hot, not too hot. We have an oil-fired hot water heater and a new one would be $2000-2600. I finally called my oil company to see if they could recommend someone who would service it or just tell us what we need to do and it turns out that they'll look at it. (The company it came from apparently doesn't service them anymore). AND when I explained the problem to the guy he said we would only need a new one if it was leaking and that it sounds like the "thermostat" (not the technical term) is just busted. It might cost us a few hundred to have someone come out and look at it and fix it but that's better than 2 grand. And I have a wicked huge credit from the budget plan payments I made when the price of oil was wicked high. I wonder how much oil we've wasted heating this damn water. It is now up to Vader to call and set up a time. I think I will have to remind him every day. As he said yesterday he is dillatory (?) and I am proactive. The word he used meant the opposite of pro-active, someone who just delays things, but he's trying to expand his vocabulary.

Speaking of which, when I was changing the Princess's poopy diaper today (aside--I have a friend who ALWAYS says "messy diaper". Each time she says it I think of what she must think of me and my poopy talk. I've been trying to clean it up and not let the poop fly so much, but it's hard.), SkyWalker was assisting and when he saw the diaper he said "What the hell?". It was not an unusual poop, so I really don't know what his problem was.Anyway, I'm pretty sure he did not get that expression from ME, because if he had he would have said "What the hell dude?". So I'll be blaming that one on his father.

2 comments Tags: kindergarten, surgery, plumbing, isaac, skywalker, playdates, the princess …

Progress report

The Princess is doing much much better. She's walking on her own, climbing up the stairs (argh!) and making silly faces. I think we've turned the corner and now begins the hard part of keeping her from doing too much for the next month. I am so annoyed we had to drop out of the family place workshop at the library but the thing she loved to do most there was climb on the climbing toys and fall down the slide. Sigh. It is going to be a long long month.

SkyWalker seems to be okay now that his sister is acting more normally. He was a bit worried. They are very VERY close. He's back to being a goofball and in the same breath told me that I was the cutest mommy in the world and that I had a big fat womb and smelled like throw-up.

Back to work I go gathering tissue paper and feathers and streamers and aluminum foil shapes for the workshop tomorrow that we can't go to. :-(

1 comment Tags: surgery, working, skywalker, the princess

Surgery is sucky

I don't know how much time I have before the Princess needs something... she is watching Curious George (after requesting Dora and then taking the remote and flipping around until she found the movies on demand station and a preview for Australian movies with Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman and then saying George). 


It has not been an easy week. 

She had her surgery Monday morning. They couldn't do the original plan of putting the bad ureter on the good one. The surgeon just didn't want to take the risk of the "good" one not being good enough. So they took both off and put them both back on the kidney (yes this pretty much is what they did when she was 5 months old). They buried them deep within the bladder and made a decent size tunnel. He said her bladder muscle was pretty thin and that's the only reason he can think of for her developing the reflux to begin with. We'll know in May if it was successful and if it wasn't he says *he's* going to cry. 

Recovery has been much harder than the first time. She refused to walk because it hurt too much. She had the equivalent of an epidural in the hospital and it took a while for her to feel her legs again. She couldn't poop and that doesn't happen to her too often so I think she was in even more pain. I gave her a suppository yesterday morning and she seems to be doing a bit better. Eating and drinking a little more and walking if I hold her hand. During the surgery they found bacteria in her urine and it it turned out to be a UTI. So no more amoxicillin (obviously didn't work). She's on bactrum now and she does not like it. She has to drink a ton of water or it will hurt her kidneys. She's drinking more now but before she pooped she was not drinking as much as she should have. She also needs to drink more to flush out all of the blood. She was looking pretty good at the hospital because she had the IV. 

All in all it's been much harder than when she was 5 months old and wasn't even crawling let alone walking. She slept a lot more and had more time to heal. I'm glad I took last night off from work and really wish I didn't have to work this weekend. She's doing a bit better but she's still not independently walking. It's going to be a long weekend away from her. 

6 comments Tags: surgery, reflux, the princess, ureters

Common sense

My husband is very smart. But sometimes he is very stupid.


A couple of days ago I was explaining to SkyWalker about the Princess's surgery (in less than a week). I said I would have to stay overnight at the hospital but that Daddy and Nana would be home with him. Vader acts totally surprised. He didn't know it was an overnight. He asked if I wanted him to stay instead but I can't do that. I can't leave her. Today it dawned on me to ask him if he took Tuesday off from work too. Nope. He claims that he had asked me what days he had to take off and I said just Monday. If he did I'm sure I thought he meant the whole week which he doesn't need to do since my mom will be here until Thursday. Now, besides the fact that he was sitting in the doctor's office with me when they said she needs surgery again and that it will be an overnight, in what world do you ever get surgery and get released that day? When you're less than 2 years old??!!! This is not a procedure like September's deflux. This is invasive surgery with an incision and a scar and pain meds and the whole shebang. The possibility exists that she might have to stay more than one night, but it was only one night last time (when she was 5 months old). But there is a huge difference between the recovery time of a 5 month old and an almost-2 year old. It might take a lot longer. I'm trying to get Thursday night off from work and naturally I have to work the following weekend, but that's a lost cause. 

It's not like I need him to stay over Monday night, but if he goes in to work on Tuesday that means we'll have to take separate cars on Monday (and I really don't like driving in these situations) and I'll be all alone talking to the doctors Tuesday morning and it will all just be even more of a pain in the ass. Not to mention the fact that if it were me I wouldn't be able to go to work until I knew my baby girl was home and okay. 

It is 8:50 and we should leave for storytime at 9:30 but SkyWalker said he has too much work to do today so he can't go. He then said he wants to just stay at our home and relax. I explained that he's missing next week and he's okay with that. I'm trying to keep the Princess germ-free this week so it looks like we're not going today. Which is fine since I am still in my pajamas and not really in the mood to see anyone right now. 

4 comments Tags: surgery, vader, reflux, the princess

Here we go again

I have tried to remain positive and optimistic. My baby is having surgery again but at least she has surgery available to her--she doesn't have a fatal disease. This will all be over and she will live a normal life. My husband's job is in jeopardy once again but I am trying to have faith that it will all work out as it has before. 


But this is just too much.

Isaac came in last night limping. He could barely make it up the stairs. I hoped it was just the cold and maybe he had jumped up too quickly. It hasn't gotten any better. Here's the kicker--it's his OTHER leg. Back in August 2007 Isaac had surgery for a torn ACL. They told us there was a good chance it would happen to his other leg too. I will bet anything that this is what it is. We're taking him to the vet on Saturday and then we'd have to take him to the specialist again and he'd have to have another surgery. Which would involve him being in the crate and confined to a leash for 2-3 months. 

So, right now I am 14 1/2 weeks pregnant and taking medication so I don't throw up but even with the medication I still sometimes throw up especially when I do too much like try to vacuum. SO, let's say Isaac gets his surgery in January. Who's home all day to take him out on the leash? Me. He'll be confined to the crate until March? Maybe. What's in March? The Princess's surgery. So I will go from taking care of Isaac to taking care of the Princess. By March I will be 5-6 months pregnant. 

And I'm not even getting into the financial ramifications of having to pay for another surgery. Let's hope Vader doesn't lose his job.

I have way too many posts tagged surgery. 

Post a comment Tags: surgery, isaac

Ureters, Reflux and Surgeries. Oh my.

When I was 20 weeks pregnant with the Princess I had a level 2 ultrasound to check my placenta because of the minor abruption I had with SkyWalker. The placenta was okay. The Princess's right kidney was not. That was in January 2007, nearly 2 years ago, and that is how long we have been dealing with this. 


In October of 2007, at a mere 5 months old, the Princess had her first surgery. The plan was to take her "bad" ureter on the right side and hook it up to the good one (you're only supposed to have one anyway!). When they got inside the bad one was so kinked up that they couldn't do it. So they took both ureters and detached them and then reattached them right next to each other on the bladder. Her follow up ultrasound looked great, but she didn't have a VCUG because she hadn't had reflux to begin with... and then she got her UTI in April 08 and in June she had the VCUG and lo and behold there was reflux. In Sept, nearly a year after her first surgery, she had the deflux procedure done to correct the reflux. Today she had another ultrasound and VCUG. 

It didn't work.

The bad ureter is just so bad that the deflux didn't even make a dent. So in March 09 they will take the bad ureter and hook it up to the good one. Yeah, you read that right. She's grown so much that the ureter has stretched and unkinked itself and they are confident that they can do it this time and then that will be it, it will be fixed. At that point she will be just under 2 years old and she will have her 3rd surgery. 

Good. Friggin. Times.

8 comments Tags: surgery, reflux, the princess, kidney dilation, ureters, deflux

Goofballs

I am completely lacking in focus right now. I intended on making a bookmark on discipline books or doing some other work-related work but I just can't focus. I am tired beyond tired and the only thing I can attribute it to is spending all day at the hospital yesterday. And thinking about all the things I still have to do. Like clean and bake cupcakes and more cupcakes and more cupcakes.

The Princess was amazing yesterday. They delayed her surgery so she had to wait even longer with an empty tummy and she was SO GOOD it was just, well, amazing. I did let her have her pacifier towards the end because she was getting tired as well as hungry. They took her away and she didn't cry, just calmly let them hold her. The surgery itself was only half an hour. She came out of the anesthesia crying and screaming and really unhappy. She refused to drink any water. She finally just screamed herself to sleep in my arms and slept for at least half an hour and then when she woke up she was much calmer. She cried when they took out the IV and the blood pressure thing, but got over it quickly. When we got home she drank water and ate chinese food and jumped on Mama and went to sleep without any medication. Today she has been a complete goofball, jumping on the bed, sticking her hand in the toilet, and wrestling her brother whenever she got the chance.

We won't know if it was successful until November when she has her VCUG and Ultrasound. The surgeon sounded confident but couldn't commit to anything. So now we just wait and see.

SkyWalker seems to be doing just fine in preschool. He's talking about some of the kids and while I'm sure he's not playing with them yet, he's willingly going there and doesn't seem traumatized. He's having a hard time with his poop again but I think that's because of the Princess yesterday and not because of preschool. It's possible it's preschool, I'm pretty sure he's not going to poop there and once he holds it in it's never good, but I would bet that it has more to do with worrying over his sister. Hopefully he'll get it out tonight.

Today my son said: "You need to see my butt crack", bent over, dropped pants, and showed me his butt crack. Good times.

1 comment Tags: preschool, surgery, poop, skywalker, reflux, the princess, deflux …

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1 comment Tags: surgery, reflux, the princess, deflux

So far so good

SkyWalker had his "first" day of preschool on Monday. The Princess and I were right down the hall, but I didn't tell him that. He was only there for an hour but he did pretty good. He talked to his teacher and did what he was supposed to do and told my mom that he made friends with a couple of kids. Vader just left to take him for his first official day. 


They scheduled the Princess's surgery for noon. We have to be there at 10:30. This pretty much sucks, BUT it's going much better than I thought it would. I went upstairs at 11:30 last night with a cup of yogurt and some milk. She had just a little milk but she ate most of the yogurt, proving once again that she is her father's daughter and can eat at anytime, anywhere. She smiled and talked and kept looking at me like "Is this for real?". I hope tonight I don't hear "Where's my yogurt woman?" through the monitor. She woke up slightly before 7, I changed her diaper and acted like it was the middle of the night. I put her back down and she went back to sleep. Or at least stayed quiet enough that I could eat and shower. She woke up again at 8:30 and I gave her the water she was allowed to have. We are downstairs in the office now and she is trying to ride a bike AND play the ukuele at the same time. So far she doesn't seem to have realized that we have not eaten. We still have a little less than an hour to go before we have to leave though. I think once she's in the car she will be okay and then she will be distracted in the hospital. I am so glad I gave her that yogurt. 

By the end of today, in the last 4 years I will have had to be in the waiting room 3 times as my children went through surgery. I think that's more than my fair share, don't you? Funnily enough I've also had to go through 3 dog surgeries--all for Mr. problem dog Isaac. I would like to be done with surgeries now. 

I need to somehow pack some snacks for myself and a sippy cup for the Princess without her seeing. I cannot believe how calm and good she is being, but I'm sure that will change if she sees some food. 

4 comments Tags: preschool, surgery, skywalker, the princess, deflux