Charlotte's Surgery

Starting back last year, about half way through Kindergarten, Charlotte started getting really sick and often. She missed a lot of school due to febrile UTIs. As soon as she would finish the antibiotic for one infection a new one would show up. This lasted for several months until she was finally referred to a pediatric urologist at the UVA Battle Building. Here she underwent her second ultrasound and a test called VCUG. This test basically inserted a dye into her bladder and using radio-logical imaging they could tell that she was re-fluxing urine back into both her kidneys.  The images also show considerable scarring on her kidneys from repeated infections. She needed to have surgery and was scheduled for the next week. She would be having Bilateral Ureteral Re-implantation surgery.

 David and I right by Charlotte's side during her testing. I think pink is David's color. :)

 One week later, we arrived early at UVA to check in for her surgery. Then we waited and waited until her turn..... David let her pick out a stuffed animal at the gift shop to take with her during surgery. She picked this elephant and named her Ellie.

 We were given a buzzer that would go off when it was her turn. We had to wait nearly 2 hours. Here I caught Charlotte nervously looking at the buzzer wondering when it would light up.

Then she was taken to pre-op and we were briefed on everything that would happen. And then we said our goodbyes. I totally knew she was in good hands and would be fine, but it's still a little nerve wracking to watch them roll her down the hall and we can't go with her.

 Then a funny thing happened - David and I decided to go get some lunch in the cafeteria. It had already been about 30 minutes since we had said goodbye to Charlotte. After we got our lunch and were looking for a place to sit and eat, lo and behold, there's her surgeon sitting right there enjoying his lunch!! We all made eye contact and we said a nervous hello. He invited us to sit at the table next to him. He then was very quick to pack up his things and head out of the cafeteria! We know he needed to fuel up for the long surgery, and surgeons come in at the last minutes when everything is all set and ready. But it was still kind awkward to know your daughter is in surgery and then your see the surgeon there eating his  lunch! 

In the waiting room is a board with ID numbers for you to follow along on the progress of surgery. On this shot, she was green right in the center of the screen, which meant she was about half way through her surgery.

 We also waited for phone calls on this phones with updates from the attending nurse. She called about every 1 1/2 hours to keep us posted on how things were going. The first time she called she let us know that Charlotte did fine with the sedation and that she was full conversation about alligators until she fell asleep. I'm not sure where the alligators came from?!

 This was supposed to be a 3-4 hr surgery but her's ended up being nearly 7 hours! The doctor hadn't expected as much scar tissue as he found, which made the proceedur go a lot slower. Boy were we glad Dr. Herndon had fueled up beforehand!! We were able to meet up with her in the recovery room, where she looked like this....

 Then she was moved to her room where she would stay the night. She almost immediately wanted some ice cream.... and then a Popsicle.

 We had only been in the room for a few minutes when the Doctor, the Bishop and our friend Lucy with all the other kids ALL showed up at the same time!!! It was pretty overwhelming for me, I can only imagine how Charlotte must have felt. But it was good to feel the support from everyone. And the other kids were happy to see Charlotte. After everyone left, she asked me when she was going to have the surgery! She didn't even realize that it had already happened. She was pretty out of it.

 It was a looooong night. Charlotte did not like the catheter or the IV's in her hands. She complained a little bit, but never once during this whole thing did she ever cry. First thing the next morning, I asked if the catheter could be removed. They took it out and Charlotte wanted to get up and walk right away. Her incision was very large, about 4-5 inches wide. So moving was very slow, but kids are so resilient! I was shocked at how quickly she was up and moving around (slowly for several days, but she was not going to be held back)

 Waiting for discharge took a long time. She was so ready to be home. 

 Once we got home and it was just me and her, all of her emotions started coming out. I think she must have tried to be really brave at the hospital, which she was amazing at. But when we got home, she finally felt like all those emotions could be shown. She sobbed and sobbed and just wanted me to hold her. That just pulled at my heart strings so much. She had been so brave and strong and to see her finally break down was sad. I told her it was fine to cry and to just let it all out. She did so for a while and then fell asleep. Then she never cried about it again. Her recovery went wonderfully. She had to use pull ups for two days because she had no bladder control and could simply not move fast enough to get to a toilet. But she slowly regained control and two weeks later is doing amazing! Except for the large incision that is still healing, one would never guess she had such a big surgery. She was able to start school a week after her surgery, but is on restricted activities for one month. No PE or recess, or swimming or bike riding. It's absolutely killing her to have to wait! Especially the recess part. I have been so proud of her this entire time. She is one strong little girl! Her strength and determination were inspiring to me.