In the room...

I got to go back to the recovery room after she'd woken up some. I am a little sad about that- that I couldn't be there when she woke up. The nurse said she was hurting, and she gave her some morphine. Her oxygen sats dropped a little, too, so she was on oxygen. But, she was stable and doing well so we went up to the room accompanied by lots of wires and tubes and so on. She was still hurting when we got to the room and got another dose of morphine (and by the way, that stuff HURTS when going in! With me, it makes me cry, not for any real reason, either).

Megan is now feeling a little better, but she's very groggy. They've had to give her quite a bit of morphine (three doses now). Supposedly the anesthesia she had during surgery was supposed to last longer, but thankfully they've got her covered with other medication. She's not really sleeping, but she isn't really awake. She's tried to watch her MP4-player, but fell asleep for part of it, then awoke and pulled it off. I called and let her talk to her dad, and she asked to speak with Zoë. Sadly, her big sister was still in school.

This is the email I sent out to family and friends after Megan got out of surgery (but before I got to see her):

Megan is out of surgery! Dr. Cain said that her bladder was much thicker than he anticipated, which meant it took a little longer to dissect the ureters to free them up. He said otherwise the surgery went well, and he was able to reimplant the ureters in an anatomical fashion- meaning if she were ever to have any problems in the future, it will be easier to access things and not have to open her again (such as in the case of a kidney stone or some such thing). He doesn't anticipate needing to, as things went well.

He also said that we definitely decided on the right course of action. Normally ureters enter a muscular section of the bladder close to the ureter that is called the trigone. They will enter at an angle and have a "flap" that prevents urine from backflowing. Not only was there NO flap or canal for the ureters, but they were nearly 2 cm to the side (lateral) of the trigone (tri gohn)- so far away, and at such an angle there was no way that this ever would have corrected itself (she'd never grow out of the problem).

As for recovery, we will be here today. She had a caudal block, meaning they injected medication into the very base of her spinal column (similar to an epidural) and that should help her out throughout today. She will be on toradol (iv injection) this evening and transition over to oral pain medications (ibuprofen with codeine) tonight and Tuesday. She'll also be on an anti-spasm med for her bladder, a stool softener, and valium (which also helps bladder). And, she'll have a few doses of antibiotics tonight and tomorrow. She should still be ready to go home on Wednesday, baring any complications (infection, excessive bleeding, no pain control, etc).

The other issue the doc said is that we will have to retrain her bladder habbits. She's got a thick bladder because she's been holding her urine. This means we will have to help her relearn to empty her bladder more often (ever 1.5-2 hours). And, he will be following up with us in 1 month and then 6 months to see how she's doing and how she's healing, and if the reflux has resolved. So, we're not done, but have a bit of a row to hoe. At least this shoal has been well navigated and we are in clear waters for a while.

Thank you, THANK YOU for all your prayers and thoughts and so on. It has been a TREMENDOUS help, and I'm so grateful for such wonderful family (and friends).