We checked into CS MOTT Children's Hospital around 9:30pm on Sunday night. I think we got about 2 hours of sleep on Sunday night. Emmie was determined to eat right up until midnight, so at 11:00pm we are eating mac-n-cheese, yogurt, pretzels, apples, chocolate milk. The girl was literally counting down the minutes! At midnight they came in and did blood work. Around 2:30am they came in to put her IV in. And we had to be up at 5:30am.
Monday morning at 7:00am they took us down to the surgery pre-op. We met with all the surgeons and anesthesia team. One really cool thing that happened, was when we met Dr. Parks, the urologist responsible for her partial nephrectomy. He said to us "I have a habit of praying for my patients before surgery, would it be ok if I prayed for your daughter?" We have never had a surgeon ask us that. Of course we said yes, and we prayed with Dr. Parks over our daughter. God is good all the time and he places people in our paths. I firmly believe that God brought us here to this team of surgeons.
Surgery was LONG!!! She was taken back around 7:45am. That was hard for me. The separation is always hard. I start to have all these second thoughts, like what did I just do to my kid! I know that's Satan creeping in. We received updates throughout the day via text and phone calls. Everything seemed to be going according to plan.
Around 4:45 we received notice that one of the vascular surgeons was ready to update us and we needed to return to surgery. We consulted with Dr. Eliason. Let me say, it was one of the most uplifting post-op consults we have ever had! He said everything up to this point went better than planned! The vascular part is done. Her aortic patch went well. Her right renal reconstruction went well too! They were able to construct a normal sized artery on the right side, which is amazing! They made her aorta the size of a teenager so she will grow into it, so no need to go back in and patch her aorta again. Her pressures were good the entire time, no complications what so ever! He even thinks it's realistic for her to be medication free within 6 weeks! Praise God!!!
Around 6pm, Dr Parks showed up in the waiting area to talk to us. His part, which was the last phase of the 3 phase surgery was complete, which meant surgery was done! They were closing her up. He said Emmie did great! And he was really glad they decided to take that upper pole out. He said it was a hard cauliflower like mass, the size of a baseball!! It was providing her with no good kidney function, but quite possibly contributing to most of her blood pressure problems. They have sent it off to pathology to see exactly what it was. We told our crowd of family that Dr. Parks was the one who prayed with us before surgery. We had a nice conversation with him about his mission work in other countries, and how a few years ago he felt convicted about praying for his patients in the states like he does in other countries. Instead of praying for them in secret, he decided to start asking families if he could pray with them. The amazing thing is, he's never had someone tell him no. God is doing amazing things with Dr. Parks and his gifts in medicine.
Our final consult of the day was with Dr. Coleman. That lady looked exhausted. She was by Emmie's side doing very tedious work for hours and hours. She was there in the beginning, and she was the one who closed her up. A long day for her. She is saving lives and I am so grateful she was able to help my baby. I can not say enough good things about her. She's so polite, soft spoken, and nothing but good things to say. She was so happy about the outcome of Emmie's surgery. Everything went better than they planned. No complications. I will never be able to thank her enough for her work on Emmie. Because of her, Em could likely be medication free! She will likely live a very normal life with little to no complications from her congenital defects.
We were able to see Emmie for the first time around 7:30pm. She was resting peacefully, still intubated, which we were warned about. She looked good, a little swollen, but over all good! Unfortunately, (or maybe not, it's hard to tell) Her feisty personality started showing through! She fought the tubes, tried to extubate herself, bit down on her airway. It was a nightmare. The nurses assured us that this was actually good. Feisty is good, and the fact that she came out of sedation faster than anticipated meant her kidneys were working well.
It was a rough night! She woke up several times, each time a little less traumatic than the last. Each time a little more calm than before, but by 2:30am the nurse said it wasn't good to keep sedating her and making her stay on the vent when she was fighting this hard to come off, so she set the process to extubate. At 4am they finally took her off the vent. She was much more content with out that. She was able to talk to us, which was good. She was still very loopy, but rested much more peacefully after that.
Now we start the next phase of hard. Because, really every phase of this has been hard! Her digestive system is basically asleep, which is normal. We were told all of this ahead of time. She can not eat or drink until Thursday. We are giving her a little sponge of water to wet her mouth, but that is it. It's really hard for her, and hard on us. The kid was asking for chocolate milk while still on the vent! She was mouthing it to me! ugh! other than asking for me or Tom, chocolate milk was what she wanted! It's like her coffee, and we can't give it to her. So hard. Her pain is being managed well. She is on a morphine drip, and unless they move her, she's ok. It's really hard to see her in pain though, and they have to move her around to keep from getting bed sores. Tough stuff.
Please keep praying for us. Pray that God will sustain us during these difficult hours. Pray for Emmie to be peaceful and comforted, and rest easy during the next few days. Pray that she continue to surpass expectations and her digestive system will wake up sooner rather than later!
Casting the whole of your care (all your anxieties, all your worries, all your concerns, once and for all) on him, for he cares for you affectionately and cares about you watchfully. (Ps 55:22) 1 Peter 5:7 AMPC
