Lizzie’s Journey

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So here is a more personal account of Lizzie’s reimplantation surgery. We decided that our best option for Lizzie was a bilateral sheath reimplantation at the age of 5 months. We were hopeful that this would stop her infections.

We were scheduled for the procedure on November 26, 2008. On November 16th, she woke up with a fever of 103.2. Lizzie had another kidney infection. We were so afraid that they would postpone her surgery. It was decided that we should go ahead with the surgery, because waiting was putting her kidneys at risk. We were put on a high dose antibiotic for 9 days, and admitted to the hospital on November 25th.

She would have 24 hours of IV antibiotics to ensure that there was no infection, and they would proceed with the surgery. This was one of the most frightening times in my life, and I was so afraid of her having this surgery. They explained to us the procedure, and we were able to talk to the doctor before they took her back. I think that was the hardest part, handing her off to a nurse, and watching them walk down the hall to surgery.

We were told that the surgery would take about 2 hours, and maybe a little longer if they needed to taper her ureters (which were dilated). In reality, the surgery took much longer. During the surgery, they discovered that Lizzie had 4 ureters instead of the 3 we had originally seen on VCUG. Because of this they had to reimplant all of her ureters, and were unable to taper any of them. They did not want to keep her under sedation for that long.

After what seemed like forever (over 5 hours) the doctor came out and talked to us. He told us about the extra ureter, but assured us that everything had gone well. He was very optimistic. I can’t even put into words the relief that I felt. We were able to go back into recovery and hold our little girl. She looked so tiny and fragile. I couldn’t believe it was finally over.

She had 2 catheters in for about 24 hours, and we remained in the hospital for a few more days. Recovery was difficult, but as always, Lizzie was a trooper. She struggled with dehydration, and we almost had to re-admit her to the hospital 2 days later. Luckily, with a lot of diligence and patience, she began eating again. I had been nursing until then, but because of her dehydration, we began supplementing her with formula, which seemed to help.

One of the hardest things after the surgery was the bladder spasms. She would periodically have spasms that caused her a lot of pain, even while on the oxybutin. Luckily, the spasms got better when we were able to get her hydrated. Once we were able to get the hydration and spasms under control, she healed very quickly.

It amazes me how tough kids are. By the third day after her surgery, she was already rolling over onto her belly where her incision was. I was surprised at how big the incision was, it was about 3 inches across her belly, which in a 5 month old is huge! She seemed to have very little pain from the incision itself, and now, 13 months later, you can barely see it. If you didn’t know what to look for, you wouldn’t even notice it.