Juliette’s Tapered Ureteral Reimplantation

I can’t believe that this all began 10 months ago when Juliette was just about 3 months old and was running a high fever.  She ended up being hospitalized for 6 days for hydronephrosis.  We thought everything was fine after a VCUG showed that she did not have reflux in the kidneys.  However, a month later we were back in the ER and Juliette had another UTI.  This time we were referred to a Urologist and after a bunch of ultrasounds and 2 renal scans they found out that Juliette had an obstruction in her Ureter and would need surgery to have it corrected.

On August 11th we took Juliette to Cohen Children’s Hospital for a Tapered Ureteral Reimplantation.  We had to be at the hospital at 10:30 in the morning, and Juliette was not allowed to eat anything after midnight the night before.  I was amazed at how well she did.  We made sure that Emily ate breakfast at my sisters house and Michael and I didn’t eat (because we were both so worried), so that Juliette would not have to watch any of us eating.  Once we were at the hospital Juliette was entertained by all the pictures and people.  In the surgical waiting room there were toys for her to play with and the time passed pretty quickly.  They gave Juliette a gown and I had to wear a coverup so that I could take her in to the operating room.When I brought her into the operating room I laid her down on the table and the anesthesiologist put a mask on her face to put her to sleep.  It was so hard to watch, but I knew that I had to do it, I had to be with her and comfort her.  I couldn’t stand the though of passing her to my husband and having her cry for me the whole way to the operating room.  Once she was asleep a nurse took me back to the waiting room.  I had held it together up until I walked out of the doors, I could not believe that we were going to have to wait more than 3 hours for them to finish the surgery. 

First they did a scope to see if they would even be able to progress with the surgery.  After about 20 minutes we were informed that everything looked good and that they were going to begin the ureteral reimplantation.

Our Dr. came out to tell us that everything went really well and that we could go in to see her in the recovery room as soon as she woke up.  Almost an hour and a half later we got to see our baby girl.

   

It was like seeing her for the first time, I was so happy to see her out of surgery and sleeping peacefully with one eye partially open, which they told me was perfectly normal! 

Before we could leave the recovery room she had make a certain amount of urine.  So for 2 hours we waited, she was so sleepy but still actually tried to sit up to get to us.  Once she was in my arms she fell asleep again.  I thought it was amazing that even when she was totally out of it she still found her way into my arms, my cute little koala baby!

We spent the next 3 days in the hospital.  The first day was great they had given her a caudal block, so she didn’t feel much pain for the first 24 hours and looked like thisor this

  most of the time.

After that wore off we both had a very sleepless night.  She was up and uncomfortable no matter what medicine she was given.  We were told that one of the side effects of the surgery are bladder spasms which are very painful and she was definitely having them.  She also kicked out one of the 2 IV lines that were in her feet as well as tried to rip out the catheter multiple times.    Thank goodness by the  morning when Michael was able to get to the hospital she had exhausted herself and we both got some sleep.

We stayed in our room most of the time just snuggling with toys or talking.  The hospital had a playroom which Juliette enjoyed playing in especially on the last day when the catheter was removed.  I was most thankful for the stroller they had so that I was able to walk Juliette around the halls of the ward we were in.  

We came home on Saturday afternoon and Juliette is doing really well.  She has not needed any of the pain medications and is walking and climbing around.  No one would ever know that she just had a major surgery, unless they saw the dressing covering the incision under her diaper.

I am so thankful for all the people who helped us during this time, whether it be watching Emily, visiting, answering questions, sharing experiences or thinking and praying for Juliette and our family.