Natalie Update

warning: i basically just dumped everything from the day without much thought so this may be long and rambly. it's for my own record as well so don't feel like you have to get through it all.

Natalie couldn't eat anything past 3:30 a.m. She woke up to eat at 2:30 a.m. We left the house at 6:30 a.m. to be up to the hospital by 7:30a.m. I could tell she was hungry but she never got really fussy over it so that was a relief. They let me come into the OR while they put her to sleep. They put the mask over her nose and mouth and she cried a little but was out very shortly. It didn't bother me too much to see it. One of the anesthesia people suggested I not come back to the OR cuz he thought I'd be traumatized to see my baby with a mask over her face. But she didn't seem like she was in distress or anything. Just fussed a bit and then fell asleep. I put my hand on her chest and let her hold my finger while she fell asleep so I was glad to be there. (when we were in the hospital with Natalie's first UTI, our roommate, a 5 year old girl, had to have a feeding tube placed down her nose and she was not happy about it at all. The Mom didn't want to be there when they placed it so she left the room and this little girl kept screaming for her Mom. It made me feel so bad for her. I'm not judging the Mom, it's hard to be a parent of a sick child and see them "tortured." I can think of a time that I left the room when Natalie was in the NICU and had to get an IV. They had to do a sterile PICC line so I couldn't touch her to comfort her and they just needed to get in and do their thing. It was killing me to stand there and watch her scream and so it was better for me too just to leave. ANYWAY, this long footnote is just to say that even if it had been more difficult for me to watch her go under I never want her to feel abandoned and I want to be as much a part of her care as I can. I think some people worry that the child will think that somehow the parent is the one hurting them or is "letting" people hurt them and not stopping it. I do worry about that but I'd still rather be there for her.)

I then went out while they did the scope of her bladder. The doc came out to talk to me when he was done which really didn't take all that long. I think he was only in the OR for 10 minutes or so. There really wasn't much news. I'm not sure they were expecting to find much...just felt like they needed to check things out. Stinks that she had to go through the whole prep and recovery process of the OR just for a 10 minute peek but it's something they can't do while she's awake.

It was another 15-20 minutes before I could see Natalie in recovery. I could hear her crying down the hall before I even got there. That was the hardest part of the day. She definitely did not like coming out of the anesthesia. I nursed her but sometimes she would stop feeding and just cry which is not like her at all. We were in recovery for about 45 minutes or so. When she started to seem more like herself they took us to "Phase 2" recovery. She was pretty much back to normal, smiling and everything. In Phase 2 they basically just watched her a little longer and went over more paper work. I've started a binder for all of Natalie's medical stuff and it just keeps growing.

From there I was supposed to go to the Urology clinic to learn how to catheterize Natalie. I was starving so since they weren't expecting me at a specific time I grabbed something to eat before heading there. I met with a nurse and a nurse practitioner who explained the process to me and then handed me a catheter and said, "go for it." I did. It was successful. I felt awesome. It helped that I had seen it done on her several times before. I fed her in that clinic room and then we were off for more fun.

We headed down to the orthopaedic clinic where she had a follow up appointment for the osteotomies she had done in Wisconsin (cutting of the pelvis bone to be able to pull it together). She wasn't scheduled until later in the afternoon but because we were there for Urology stuff that morning they worked us in early so we didn't have to wait around so long...very nice. Everything has healed up nicely. She will have follow ups in 6 months and then a year after that, then 5 years, then 10 years i think. They just don't ever want to let you go.

It was a long day at the hospital but all in all everything went VERY smoothly. Natalie did awesome. She is just the most happy content sweet little baby you ever did see. Other than waking up from the anesthesia she was pretty much Miss Smiley all day. She kept getting woken up throughout the day after she would doze off in my arms and still she never got fussy or cranky. Oh. I guess she wasn't crazy about me cathing her in the clinic but she calmed down quickly from that.

So, about the cathing. I mentioned before that they think the infections could be caused by her bladder not draining everything as it should. So, twice a day we will cath her to help empty her bladder all the way. Then at night we will put in a catheter and leave it in over night. During the day we just put it in for a minute or two and let it drain into a diaper until it stops dripping. Each catheter is in a sterile package and is used only once and then thrown away. It's a bit of a process to do it and at this point I'm not comfortable doing it alone at all. Fortunately, the timing is very flexible so I will try to arrange to do it while Ben is home.

Quick run down of cathing:
* wash my hands really good
* if diaper is dirty, i clean her up and wash my hands again
* using wipes from another package, clean area 3 times w/ new wipe each time
* open catheter packaging
* squeeze some lubricant on inside of packaging and run the end of the cath through it
* insert catheter
* hold catheter in place while trying to keep the other end of tubing in the diaper so pee doesn't go flying everywhere meanwhile trying to calm and entertain Natalie so she doesn't squirm too much
* at night we would then tape the catheter in place and arrange a double diaper set up so the catheter flows into the outer diaper

no problem, right?

It still makes me a little nervous to do it but I'm sure doing it 3 times a day will change that quickly.

Urology doesn't want to see Natalie for 3 months so we'll be cathing at least that long. I didn't say it out loud but I thought I should tell the doctor that we didn't want to see him for 3 months either. :0) Actually, she's got a great doctor--he's really nice and very personable.

Katie and Annabelle had a fun day playing with my Mom. Katie transformed her room into a princess room and made a sign that said "no boys." I don't know where she learned that. She pretended she was going to have a party for girls only but she said if any boys came over she would put some crackers on the front step for them. She's so thoughtful. :)

okay, i'm very tired. gotta get some sleep.
hats off to you if you made through this whole rambling purge.