Bye-Bye Reflux

As many of you know, before Callie was born she was diagnosed with kidney reflux. Since she was two days old she has had to take antibiotics daily and has had routine tests and check-ups to evaluate her condition. After her two-year check-up showed no sign of improvement we decided to accept the doctor's recommendation and schedule her surgery. For those doctors out there, the operation was going to be a cystoscopy bilateral ureteral reimplantation. We told Callie she was going to get her kidneys fixed. It's easier to say. We tried to prepare Callie for the big day, or as much as you can prepare a two year-old for such an ordeal.

Finally, two months after we scheduled it, January 4 arrived. We woke up at 4am, showered, packed the car, and got to the hospital at 5:30am. It was time to register and go through the pre-operations procedures.

We start with the star of the show. She is already in her hospital gown and has received the first of what will eventually be three Central Baptist Hospital teddy bears. Sandy was our nurse at this point and she was fabulous with Callie. It was a difficult waiting period. We were in a small room and every time the door opened someone new entered. The anesthesiologist, the physician's assistant, and so on down the line.


One of those visits came from the anesthesiologist tech, who brought with her the mask that would be used to put Callie to sleep. She suggested having Callie play with it, smell it, talk into it...whatever she wanted to do. It would hopefully make her more comfortable with it. And the approach worked very well. Callie definitely had fun playing with it, as you can see here. We all had to put it up to our mouth and say, "hellooo!"

As mentioned above, we were in a small room. And for some reason, they crammed a small red wagon into it. Of course Callie was completely attracted to it, and before long she was sitting in it and had both her favorite baby and new teddy bear buckled in. It was one more fun way to pass the time.



Clearly we didn't understand the big picture here. We quickly found out that the red wagon had a very important role in the morning's process. Once the final nurse came in to visit Callie, she asked if Callie wanted to go for a ride. Obviously Callie accepted the offer and in a split second we realized that this was goodbye and the nurse was going to wheel Callie off to the operating room. We tried not to freak out since this was a solid transition. However, we must admit it was pretty difficult. And as we look back, we can still see Callie being wheeled away while she is looking up at the nurses trying to get a sense of what this ride is really all about.

The next 3-4 hours was difficult, though made bearable in part by a series of gifts provided by Sarah's boss, Catie. She gave use five paper bags. They were labeled with the assigned hour at which they could be opened. Fortunately for us, the 8:00am bag contained cards to play Canasta, and that actually took up most of the two plus hours Callie was in surgery. We got the word Callie was out of the OR, and then had to wait for what turned out to be a very brief consultation with her surgeon. The man is short, sweet, and to the point. Most importantly, he is very good at what he does. After the longest hour ever, we were finally allowed back to the post-op area where Callie was just waking up. We were excited to see her and overwhelmingly happy to know that Sarah could sit in a chair and just hold her. Sarah got to hold her in the chair, then in a wheelchair as we transferred to the pediatric unit, and for the first three hours or so in the room.


But everyone has to get up and go to the bathroom at some point, and that's when John swooped in to get some cuddle time with Callie. One of the scariest things for us heading into this surgery was not knowing what to expect afterwards. So we both just wanted to sit and hold her. And while she was definitely lethargic, holding her was not easy because of the various tubes she had coming out of her. She had a catheter, an IV, a heart rate monitor, and a tube to drain the incision. Not fun.


We did everything we could to try and distract and comfort Callie. We brought her Bitty Baby and her favorite books from home. We also brought her pillow (made by her Great Aunt Teri) and the blanket she sleeps with every night. And finally we brought a quilt also made by Great Aunt Teri. It has pictures of all her family sewn throughout alongside various pictures of animals and objects. It is an incredible, personalized, "I Spy" quilt. All of the nurses oohed and aahhed over the craftsmanship.


That night we took advantage of the free wireless and had video chats with Grammy Gayle, Nana Banana and Sport, and the Balestraccis. It is so hard to be so far away from family and friends, but technology made this process much easier. In fact, we were even able to use this to have visitors well past official visiting hours. And hopefully it relieved some anxiety among our families. That first night was tough. The best sleep we got was from about 2:30-6am with all three of us packed into the hospital bed you see above. No, we are not kidding.


However, children are extremely resilient, and Callie is no exception. By 10:30 the next morning, less than 24 hours after the completion of her surgery, she was looking for something to do. So we talked to the nurses, got some simple directions on how to make Callie and her numerous tubes portable, and headed down the hall to the playroom. Although she was a little slow, which was good since her parents had a difficult time keeping the IV pole, the catheter bag, and the drainage balloon all in step and out of harms way. It was a juggling act to say the least.


Fortunately for all of us, Callie didn't always have to walk. There were a few cars available for her to cruise the pediatrics ward. She had her eye on this green one and would accept nothing less. Needless to say, we made more than several laps in the three days we were at the hospital. As mentioned before, Callie scored three teddy bears during her stay at Central Baptist. But her haul of "incentive prizes" (we'll give you this if you take your medicine or let us look at your incision) included approximately 50 stickers, a dog purse, an arts and crafts bag, and a baby doll now appropriately named Little Baby. Seriously, she made sure that she got more than just some hospital jello for her troubles.

By the third day, Callie was definitely feeling better about 60 percent of the time. The other 40 percent she suffered from bladder spasms that the nurses described as being comparable to labor contractions. In other words, they were relatively short but extremely painful. In addition, she still had some pain from the incision and the drainage tube. But let's get back to the 60 percent of the time she was feeling good. Perhaps the picture below says it best.



We'll give the picture some context. We had to change her gown (or her dress as Callie called it) because it had gotten wet while Callie was washing her hands and face. But we couldn't change it without the assistance of a nurse who would disconnect the IV briefly. While we awaited the nurse, Callie was happy to pose for a quick picture. Please notice two things. First, no catheter bag. It was removed on day 2. Second, Callie is now starting a new fashion trend with Sarah's assistance. Anyone can have a drainage bubble, but only the most classy folks tuck it into the waistband of their diaper for ease of movement.


During the three days we were in the hospital Callie was exposed to a large number of foods and beverages she never received at home. It is safe to say that her consumption of apple juice in 72 hours exceeded by leaps and bounds what she has had at home. Jello was another source of amazement, along with whipped cream and hospital dinner rolls. At this point she was not eating much, but she was eating. We have had to wean her off of the juice as well as off of the idea of always getting a prize for doing something. This is just a picture of the last meal she and John shared before they left the hospital. At this point we were so excited for our bed, real food, and the general comforts of our house.

But we also need to take a moment to express our thanks to all of the folks at Central Baptist. We had a great experience when Callie was born there, and this time was no different. The nurses knew what they were doing and always made sure that we had everything and anything we needed. It was also obvious that they cared about Callie's recovery and in fact we got a card from them today wishing her well. They do things right at Central Baptist. So we give our utmost thanks to Mary, Rebecca, Lynsey, and Deana.

And while the nurses supported us physically and mentally during our stay, our emotional well being was strengthened by the love, thoughts, and prayers of our family and friends. The calls, the emails, and just the plain old good vibes were received and greatly appreciated. Callie truly doesn't know how lucky she is to have such a widespread and strong support system.

The support also came from her peers who truly understand Callie's mindset. Claire and Nora Leshney and Hayden and Jackson McBean were thoughtful enough to send her a fine fruit arrangement spouting out of Elmo's head. It is safe to say that Callie loves it. Even this morning John had to give Elmo a kiss before he could give Callie one.


Thank you again for all of your support. Although we can certainly think of better ways to start a new year, we also know that the surgery will make Callie better and allow her to enjoy many new years to come. Who knows what 2010 will hold?