Surgery

This is an update on Ethan's surgery!
Ethan was born with two ureters on his left kidney. Normally you only have one. This second one of his attached incorrectly to his bladder and wasn't draining. We saw this on his prenatal ultrasounds, so we knew that there was an issue long ago. The surgery was to take that ureter, taper it down because it had become so swollen it would have overwhelmed the bladder at its current size, connect it to the bladder to flow the correct way and then connect it to a drain to help relieve some of the swelling from the surgery. Phew. So, they did all of this and it all went really really great! The doctor said that everything went exactly as they would have wanted, and that everyone was loving having him around. (I mean, is that really a surprise? The kid is like perfect.)

Pre-Op Pictures: Ethan did fabulous in Pre-Op, even after they bumped his surgery a half hour. He was playing and talking to everyone, and didn't even care that he hadn't eaten in six hours.

Post-Op Pictures: When Ethan came out of surgery (after being under for almost 3 hours) I (Whitney) got to go and meet him. It was so sad. He was so groggy and confused and a couple of nurses were trying to get him to calm down. He wasn't in pain, because the doctor had given him and epidural type shot, he was just hungry and confused. After eating a little, we met up with Dad and headed up to our room. We met our nurses, and Ethan downed a few ounces of Pedialyte, and was out. And was out for about 3 hours. He woke up again to eat a bunch more, and look around all confused, and then slept again. He basically spent the whole day sleeping, and eating.

           

Saturday (the day after surgery) he woke up at about 4 am, and was ready to go. He was crawling around the crib, spitting, and talking. We were glad, but not because it was stinking early. :] For the rest of the day he carried on just like nothing had happened, climbing all over the place and getting tangled in all his medical related cords. The doctors came and told us he was doing great (Uh, obviously.) so we were discharged! Woo hoo. We came home, and Ethan decided he was ready to crawl. It's just an army crawl, but this was not how mom and dad pictured the day after surgery! But, he's so tough that it hasn't even phased him.