Yesterday was one of the longest days of our lives but we are home now and everything is pretty much fine. We arrived at the hospital at 7 am and they did not start the procedure until 2 pm! It was criminal to have us wait so long especially since Susannah could not eat or drink anything in preparation for the anesthesia. We passed some of the time in the children's garden behind the hospital. She's pretty cheery here but as the day dragged on we are all quite unhappy.
The nephrostomy went well and there were no complications. We go back a week from Tuesday and basically repeat this whole procedure. She'll be under anesthesia again and they will insert a wire into the tubes to get a better look at what's preventing the urine from draining completely. It seems that the problem is still at the bottom of the ureters, which is kind of a good thing because it is more likely that the obstruction is due to swelling that will eventually subside. So we wait and see..... what else is new. If they make us wait that long again they will have to call security because I will resort to physical violence.
Until then, we are dealing with these bags. Almost all of Susannah's urine is now being drained into these bags outside her body. We can detach them twice a day for an hour at a time. Our job now is to devise ways to keep them out of her way and out of her mouth.
She was pretty miserable yesterday but fortunately today she is acting completely normal -- eating solid food, drinking milk, nursing, crawling and wanting to be walked. That is such a huge huge relief to us all. It's possible that having all this pressure off her kidneys will make her feel even better.
In the meantime she looks like a Guatemalan kid since the best device to keep the bags out of her way seems to be this scarf that Ben got me when we were near Tikal. (That was in 2003 when we were oh so young and carefree. But maybe S would like to go there someday....)
2 comments:
Good grief, those are large bags! But they are not deterring her...she seems to be going so fast in one picture she is a blur. What a trooper she is and to say the least she has amazing parents!
Those bags are HUGE! You guys are amazing . . . and so is Susannah, without a doubt, super-Susannah. And she doesn't even act as if she knows they are there. Amazing, that's all there is to say about all of you.
Much love, GMP
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