Snapshots of Our Life: Our Brave Little Patient

Back in September when Emma was hospitalized with her kidneys , they inserted a stent to help drain a massive blockage that she had and hopefully to assist her kidney function moving forward. Problem is... it's only a temporary solution, they really shouldn't stay in for more than 6 months. So she had to go in for surgery to have the stent removed.

This Minnie Mouse balloon outside the gift shop was bigger than Emma. She wanted to go see it. This was before she went in for surgery. She was such a little trooper today.

This is an image of a kidney with a stent like Emma's - (The long blue thing with a loop at the end)

So from here, we have to wait 2-3 weeks to see how her kidneys function on their own, and then go in for a VCUG test. Normally, the direction fluid flows in the body is downward from the kidney into the bladder. They think Emma's may be reversed, and refluxing upward from the bladder into the kidney - which will cause the kidney problems that she has had. So the VCUG will confirm that. They use dye in her system, and a radiologist watches the direction of flow through out the kidneys, bladder, ureters, etc... She went through a series of tests when she was hospitalized the last time but her kidneys were not strong enough at the time to withstand this test. So that's our next step. Then, after that, in about 6 weeks we go in for an ultrasound. Based on the results of the tests, they will determine whether we need to start looking at long term solutions, potentially involving a small procedure, or she may very well have grown out of it. Apparently it is not uncommon for this to happen in little girls, because their anatomy is so small and the 'canals' are so small... that as they grow, so do their insides and it tends to resolve itself sometimes.

Her surgery was scheduled for really early this morning, which is a good thing... They don't call to give you the time of the surgery until the night before and we were really hoping for early, because she couldn't eat or drink anything past midnight. How do you tell that to a 3 yr old? My mom came with us to the hospital. Emma needed her mommy, and I needed mine! I was probably a whole lot more nervous than she was (maybe because she didn't really know where we were going) but her track record isn't great with procedures like this. She's a tough little cookie, and she typically will make it as hard on the doctors and nurses as absolutely possible (and Mom as well) Rightfully so, considering the poor thing has endured countless catheters, IV's, blood draws, ... BUT, I must say, today went very, very well, and really smooth.

When we got there we registered, checked in, and were taken back to the prep room where she got a nice little dose of versed to calm her down. The good thing about it, was that it was in a form she could drink. Now where was that the last time when they were stickin' her with needles while she was screaming and crying her eyes out in torture?! The next half hour was pretty funny... she was a loopy little girl, and was making us laugh.

She had all of her guys with her. Lamby has been through quite a bit over the course of the last year. The other guys we accumulated just today.

Me and my sweet baby girl before she went in.

The other thing... the last time she needed anesthesia they just stuck her with a needle while she was in the middle of a panic attack. This time they were able to use something similar to a gas mask (that smelled like bubble gum) to make her go to sleep first. Again...?? Where was this last time?!

On our way in the hospital this morning she was trying to convince me to go ANYwhere but the hospital, and she said 'I no want them to take my stent out... I love my stent'

Funny since she didn't even know she had that in her until last night when Andrew told her. He asked her if she was ready to get it taken out.

So she went into surgery and everything went great, and she woke up all smiles (which isn't typical with kids waking up from anesthesia.) But she had a popsicle, and I grabbed a m&m cookie from a bakery in the hospital while we were waiting.

And because she was such a good girl... She got a bravery award to take home! (actually, I'm pretty sure she would have been able to keep it even if she wasn't so good, but I'm proud of her.)

As you can see, she wrinkled it a little bit.

Before we went in for surgery, I promised her that we could do whatever she wanted after.. and I mentioned maybe going to lunch, and she definitely didn't forget about that. A few times in her loopy state of mind she thought the doctors/nurses that were coming in and out of the room were servers at a restaurant bringing her dinner (yeah, at 7 am.) Poor thing was hungry!

So for lunch we went to Cheeseburger in Paradise.