Brody's First Surgery

    Wednesday, February sixteenth my sweet baby had his first surgery. It took place at Vanderbilt Children's Hospital. This surgery has been scheduled since he was about four weeks old. When he was born his penis was slightly curved. As a result of this they did not circumcise him then. They wanted to save the foreskin just in case they needed to  use it at a later date.  At four weeks old we went and saw a Urologist, Dr. John Pope at Vanderbilt. He scheduled him to have surgery when he was six months old to correct the curving of his penis and to circumcise him at that time.
     When Brody was seven weeks old and he had a urinary tract infection and a kidney infection which sent us to spending four days in Vanderbilt,  where they discovered he had vesicoureteral reflux(kidney reflux).
(http://www.webmd.com/digestive-disorders/tc/vesicoureteral-reflux-vur-topic-overview) 
     His kidney reflux is a level five which is the highest in severity that it can occur.  As a result of this  diagnosis, he was put on a daily antibiotic. He will take this until he is three years old, at this time he will have corrective surgery for this. They wanted to wait until he was three to do this because it is too risky to do at this time with him being so young and small. The antibiotic is used to prevent more urinary tract or kidney infections from occurring.
   So, another procedure that was done during his surgery on Wednesday was a Cystoscopy, which is where they used a scope to look at his kidneys and ureter valves.  Dr. Pope wanted to inspect the area where the reflux was taking place and if see if there was any blockage in the valves. They did discover some blockage so they cleared that out yesterday as well as doing the circumcision, and correcting the curving of the penis.
     We were told to arrive at Vanderbilt at 6:00 a.m. Wednesday morning. Brody couldn't have anything to eat after midnight Tuesday evening. I fed him at 10:30 p.m. Tuesday night hoping that this feeding would hold him over until the time of his surgery. We checked in at 6:00, and went back at 7:15.  We spoke to about 8-9 nurses and Doctor's. The anesthesiologist came in and asked lots of questions, as did we. At 8:00 a.m. one of the OR nurses came back and took Brody to the OR. They asked what his favorite toy was ( his Sophie giraffe) and took that with him. The hardest part for me was when Phillip and I were walking back in the waiting room an we looked down the hall and saw Brody being carried by the nurse and all we could see was his little hand hanging down. It was scary thinking about our little six month old being put to sleep. My greatest fear was that something would go wrong and he would never wake up and I would never look into those big blue eyes again.

       Brody with his daddy waiting to be taken back to the OR.
    
  
      The surgery was scheduled from 8-10. They said there was a possibility that it could be done sooner than that. While we were waiting, we ran into some of our good friends from church Jon and Hailee Ireland. They were there because their little 13 week boy Finn was having surgery to get a shunt put in his head. This was put there to drain the fluid from his brain to his stomach. Looking back now I believe that it was a God thing that we were waiting as our little boys were in surgery at the same time. It was just so comforting being there waiting with friends, and understanding what they were going through somewhat. It also made the time go by faster waiting with them. By the time we ate breakfast and came back up to the waiting room, both boy's surgeries were done in the next thirty minutes. Brody's surgery was over by 9:20.
       After the surgery we met with Dr. Pope, Brody's Urologist who did the surgery. He explained to us the details of what went on in the surgery. He said that when they did the scope, they found some blockage in his Ureters. They cleared the blockage, and he hopes that will improve Brody's kidney reflux.  He doesn't think that will make the reflux go away completely, but he does think it will help.
      We were taken to Brody who was in a recovery area.  He was still coming off of anesthesia and was pretty groggy and fussy. It took him about 1-1/2 hours for the anesthesia to wear off enough so that he was more himself. The nurses explained to us his recovery care. He had to come home with a Foley Catheter in him which we had to remove three days after leaving the hospital.

Phillip holding Brody in recovery. 

       The day of the surgery when we arrived home he was very groggy, fussy, and screamed when we changed his diaper. The next couple of days following the surgery were fairly normal. The only time he acted like he was in any kind of pain was when we would change his diaper.
     Saturday was the hardest day. We had to take out his catheter and remove the surgical tape. He screamed and screamed.  The most heart breaking thing is seeing your child in pain and not being able to take that pain from him. It broke my heart to see him hurting like that. As a parent you just want to switch places with your child so you can experience that pain instead of him. At the same time this situation did challenge me to think about, sometimes when we do what is best for our children it might be painful for them. I think it is important to keep focused on the big picture and realize you are doing what is best for your child.
         This whole surgery experience turned out to be good. We had a great experience at Vanderbilt Children's, had wonderful nurses, and were very thankful to God that he took care of Brody during this time. When you go through an experience like this it makes you a lot more empathetic towards people who have been through much worse and more severe medical situations with their children. I believe with all of my being that God was there in the OR with Brody and the Dr.'s and nurses. I also believe that it was not an accident that we waited with Jon and Hailee. God has given us so many good friends to walk through life with and we are so thankful for them.
         To me I try to remember that God is with us in good times and in the hard times. No matter what he is always with us.
      
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