Lizzie's surgery

Well we're home and the surgery is done.  The surgery itself went well, but Lizzie started coming down with a cold that day so the stay in the hospital was miserable.  Starting from the beginning, I LOVE versed.  It's the med that they give kids so they're not as traumatized and can handle separation from their parents.  For Lizzie it turns her into a goofball which I expected since she had it when they did the testing.  She'd roll her head back so she was looking at ceiling and just giggle to herself about who knows what.  Then if we laughed, which we always did, she giggled even more.  Her surgery was a bilateral reimplantation of the ureters.  Look at me go!  Ok so it just means they reconnect her ureters at the right angle or something so she doesn't get UTIs and her urine can't go backwards up to the kidneys.  Spence and I sat for two and half hours waiting, but everything went fine.  Dr. Wallis had to leave a stint in one ureter because of its size, just to make sure with swelling that it didn't swell shut.  This is pretty common and she gets it out next Tuesday.  Overall the hospital stay was fine, but I do wish I had decided to have it done at Utah Valley Regional for several reasons.  Don't get me wrong.  I know Primary Children's is amazing and does amazing things for so many kids.  For our purposes, it was definitely not fun.  First of all, there are so many kids that Lizzie was just another body there.  Because of her cold she wasn't allowed to walk around or anything, which I do understand.  I mean I know they've got kids who's bodies can't fight even the simplest cold.  Still doesn't make it easier to tell a two-year old she's not allowed to leave the room.  Whenever she asked for toys they came about three hours later and by then she was napping after waiting and complaining for an hour or so.  No one could really come and visit because of the crazy snowstorm and being at least an hour away.  In Provo both grandparents and a few cousins, aunts, and uncles could have visited her for those days.  Spence and I could have switched off who was with Lizzie or Daniel so they could each get time with both of us.  Also the staff at UVRMC knows how Dr. Flinders feels about patients.  If I said he wanted me to give him a message they wouldn't question it.  They'd leave the message and he'd be back to me within an hour or so.  Dr. Wallis was great, but his office staff not so much.  Lizzie seemed to be having an allergic reaction to one of the pain meds.  He felt it was ok for her to go home and I felt fine too, but he said to let him know if the rash spread or got worse in any way.  When I called his office and asked to leave a message for him to let him know it had spread over her whole body, they said they wouldn't because it wasn't directly related to urology.  If I wanted him to know about it I'd have to wait until my follow-up in ten days.  ?! Needless to say I called to leave a message for Dr. Flinders immediately, to ask his opinion.  His nurse put me on hold for maybe a minute and got back on to have us come in right away.  I know if we had been down here, even without him being the surgeon, I guarantee he would have come to check on us just to see how we were doing.  Even today he called back to make sure whether her rash was getting better and also asked if she was having any other problems he could help with.  That is a man who truly loves being a doctor.  He wants to help people.  He loves the people he serves and yet somehow he's still very much a family man.  I'm sure he could have retired years ago, but he loves what he does.  Plus, he trusts your instincts as a mother and a human.  It bugs me when a doctor acts like you just got your body yesterday and couldn't possibly know anything about it.  The sad thing is I don't know what I'll do when he does retire.  He's one in a million for sure.  Whoa sorry about the ranting!  Obviously I have a lot of pent-up frustration from how we were treated this weekend.  He did say he doesn't think the reaction was allergic since it didn't itch and wasn't raised at all.  Plus it started from her head and went downward where drug allergies usually start on the trunk.  So needless to say she's not necessarily allergic to anything other than that her body didn't like having surgery and a cold.  The rash is already going away too.  At the hospital Lizzie slept, A LOT.  Now she's home and complaining of hurting a lot, but I'm only giving her the ibuprofen and acetaminophen alternating.  All of us are much better being at home.  She's eating and drinking better too.  The only problem has been that Daniel got the cold too so they're both extremely cranky and whiny, wanting to be held all day long.  Who can blame them?  No one likes being sick.  Luckily I've got awesome visiting teachers and family and friends helping me out so I don't have to lock myself in my room.  :)  Can't wait to get the stint out in a week!