Surgery #13

We just survived another surgery...hopefully the last one we'll have for about 10 years. This was a bladder surgery. The pre-surgery was not very pleasant...we had to have Kaya on a liquid diet for more than 24 hours. Then we checked into the hospital and for about 12 hours she could have anything to eat or drink. That's when I had to be really creative in ways I could distract her. One of them was to put Maleah in her hospital bed and watch her attempt to grab every tube she could find.
Kaya made good friends with the nurses before the surgery...but afterwards she hated everyone equally (mimicking Google :). The nurse on duty right before surgery, whose duty it was to help us give with the enemas, had a wake up call. He asked Kaya if she was ready, and Kaya said: "maybe we should practice on Emily first." "Who's Emily?" he asked. (not knowing that Emily is Kaya's medical doll we bring to all surgeries to help her feel more comfortable with the procedures.) Tasha held up Maleah as if she was Emily...the nurse freaked out! "Oh...so you want to do the enema on your other daughter before we give Kaya one????" We all had a good laugh.At the end of the day, the surgery on her bladder was very successful. She had a ureter replaced (the tube that connects the kidney to the bladder), and we took a little small intestine to make a fake ureter that leads from her bladder to the surface of her skin. This will enable her to catheter her bladder about every 2 hours a day and control when she goes potty...a BIG step in getting her in panties. Until now, she had no bladder control, b/c she was urinating through her vesicostomy (a small hole that leaked from her bladder to her diaper).

A SPECIAL THANKS TO MANY OF YOU FOR YOUR THOUGHTS, PRAYERS, AND ASSISTANCE!!!! We are very blessed to have awesome family and friends.