Posting here for those who do not read the Caringbridge site.
Well where do I begin? I guess I will begin with Katelyn is doing fantastic after her surgery! It’s been 3 weeks since surgery (June 3rd) and as of Thursday, June 12th, she is up and moving around and playing as normal. Father's day weekend she did quite a bit of walking Saturday and running in my parent’s backyard Sunday. She was very sore in the evening, as expected, since she doesn’t want to stop and rest during the day. I went back to work last week so she has been getting lots of snuggle & rest time with her Nana.
As for the surgery..I am glad it’s over. Tuesday was a long day as we thought it would be. We had to be at the hospital by 7:45 am to get checked in and complete whatever paperwork was necessary. This meant Katelyn could not eat after midnight or drink even clear liquids after 5:45 am. She didn’t wake up until 6:30 so she couldn’t have anything to eat or drink. Once we got to the hospital and did the necessary paperwork, it was time for her to change into her hospital gown and the waiting began. We did see Dr. Frantz before we left the exam room and he was about to go into surgery for another patient. This meant we had at least an hour wait or so we suspected. They had a big waiting room with lots of toys, games and a TV to watch. Katelyn was only amused with it all for about 30 minutes. Then she started telling us she was hungry and thirsty. This went on for another hour! We managed to entertain her a little at a time with some books, then a game, then our phone. Soon before10:00, different doctors started coming in the waiting room and introducing themselves; the anesthesiologist, the (male) nurse who would be in the OR, a resident doctor along with a doctor/surgeon who worked with Dr. Frantz and then Dr. Frantz came to explain again what he would be doing. It is quite funny that everyone but one person, who we did not meet, was a male. Katelyn is very hesitant of strangers but especially males! We were told that the nurse would take Katelyn to the OR and within 10-15 seconds she would have a mask put over her nose & mouth for her to breathe in gas that smelled like cherries (Katelyn had picked the flavor earlier). I had full confidence in Dr. Frantz and his colleagues but my stomach was in knots because I knew Katelyn would have a fit with us leaving her with a male nurse! And boy was I right. We walked into the hallway and I handed her to the nurse and she started crying immediately. We gave her a kiss and she started screaming “mommy no, daddy no” and we parted ways. We just had to keep walking and not look back because I know I lost it and I’m sure Dean almost did. We walked into the surgery waiting room and met my parent’s and was surprised they didn’t hear Katelyn screaming because for about 5 seconds I could still hear her. We then settled in for what we thought would be a 2-3 hour wait. After 3 hours, we had not heard anything so Dean went up to the desk and inquired and was then able to talk to the nurse in the OR. He stated everything was going well and she was about to be closed up. We finally breathed a little sigh of relief when we saw Dr. Frantz come in the waiting room at 1:45 (mind you we gave her to the nurse at 10:15).
The surgery actually went better than expected. She originally had all of her liver, intestines and gallbladder in her O when she was born. Most recently, Dr. F had thought the liver had gone back in and it was the intestines still in the sac because when we would compress the O with the ace bandage, she would wrap fairly flat, meaning the contents of the O were slipping back in the abdominal cavity. Well, it turns out that it was the top part of the liver that was in the sac and the intestines were in her abdominal cavity. We thought of it like a mushroom; the intestines were underneath the top part of the mushroom, aka the liver. Also, although there were adhesions on the sac, the liver was not attached to the sac which was great news. Dr. Frantz used Alloderm like he had told us that he might do but it wasn’t because he couldn’t bring the muscles together, he did it for reinforcement. The muscles came together but he felt that using the Alloderm mesh would be extra reinforcement and would help prevent a hernia in the future. An Abdominal hernia (where tissue or an organ protrude through the wall of the abdomen) can be common,especially in babies with an Omphalocele. He used two mesh patches and they sit like the letter T. As she grows, her muscles will just grow into the mesh. On a side note, it does not look like mesh at all; it looks just like real skin (because it is but with the cells taken out but the term "mesh" is deceiving). I have pictures but I will spare you all those! He then closed up her outer skin and her scar is almost like an “S”. Seems appropriate since she is like Supergirl! He was not able to make her a belly button since the end of the incision was too high on her torso. We were not at all disappointed; we were just happy he was able to close the skin all the way and not have to worry with another surgery down the road. Just as some kids are joking Ryan for his scar from his intestinal surgery when he was 24 hours old, I know she will have to face those jokes as well. But we have and will continue to teach both of them that they are special children from God and God placed his hands on them and healed them through Dr. Kelly (Ryan’s surgeon) and Dr. Frantz.
We were able to see her right after Dr. Frantz talked with us and she was obviously scared and still sort of out of it because she cried when we walked in the recovery area. We had to wait almost an hour to get a room and she dozed off for almost the entire time.
So that’s the surgery day in a nutshell. If you are still reading, more power to you because I know it’s probably a boring read. I just wanted to get the details down so when I finally print this blog, she (and us) will know exactly what went on.
I will update the rest of her hospital stay and recovery at home in another post.In the meantime, here is what her incision looks like now.
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