Daryn's big, life-changing, counting-down-the-days-until, surgery was Monday, Nov 23rd. Lance and were simultaneously dreading it and anxious for it to happen. Bright and early that morning, we drove down to Primary Children's. The sweetie had no idea what was in store, and had fun playing with the toys while we waited.
They took her back at 10 o'clock, and Lance and I were left with a very long day in the waiting room. We read and watched shows and Christmas shopped and worried and stressed, for 9 long hours, until they finally told us she was done, and we could see her soon.
This is what we walked in to:
What an ordeal. A team of surgeons worked together to put her bladder back together and put it inside her body, remove her left uterus, bring her right uterus/vagina to the correct position, create a vesicostomy for her to pee out of, cut her hips to rotate them forward to join the pelvic bone together at the front, and finally to sew her up and cast her. We were shocked to see how big her cast was, but that was the only way they could do it to make her colostomy bag (barely) accessible. Bless that little girl's heart :(.
She was out of it for a long time and (other than waking up to cry when she needed more meds) basically just slept for the remainder of Monday and all of Tuesday. I got to hold her Tuesday evening, and Tuesday night she finally started drinking some fluids.
Wednesday, we finally started to see some glimmers of our little girl. She ate some food, played with some toys, was alert enough to have visitors, and tried out her new carseat. On the flip side, the nurses were very concerned about the mucus in her lungs that she wouldn't cough up, and had to suction out her lungs through her nose several times, while we pinned her down. Super fun.
Lance's parents brought Reagan and came to the hospital for dinner Wednesday night, and we were able to unhook her form everything and take her to the cafeteria in her stroller!
Daddy even got her first post-surgery smile by letting her play with his hat. On a side note, I promise there is a baby under all those animals. Her "loveys" were a total lifesaver. She clung to them like no other in the hospital and they gave her a lot of comfort when nothing else could.
Early Thursday morning (Thanksgiving), we got the very exciting news that we could go home!! We had been expecting to stay there much longer, so we were thrilled. We packed everything up and got her discharged, and loaded into the car, which she tolerated but did not love.
We got her home and all snuggled in on the couch, and it wasn't long before we realized caring for her was going to be even more difficult than we had anticipated.
She spends most of her awake time on the little bean bag chair, but she constantly slides down. So far we haven't figured out a better way. We try to hold her or prop her up in her carseat for a few minutes when we can, but she is so heavy and bulky that it's very difficult. Keeping her entertained is a challenge, and she needs pretty much constant attention to stay happy. Since she's been home, she's pretty much refused to drink anything at all, and we can only get a few sips of water in her. She is eating pretty good though. Every day, we've had to deal with at least two of the following 3: pee leaking everywhere, projectile vomiting, pulling of her colostomy bag and getting poop everywhere. Her cast stinks so bad and we are only 1 week in. Gross... We've resorted to putting her in shirts and duct taping them to her cast so she can't access her bag. She pulled one of the catheters out that was going though her bladder that was supposed to be in until the 10th, so we're worried about kidney infections, as well as dehydration from not drinking. I try not to get discouraged, and instead focus on small goals and one day at a time. Overall, we try to remember what a miracle and blessing it is that this can even happen, and that everything went so well. We have felt the Lord's hand guiding us and Daryn, and we have felt so much love from our friends and family. We truly are so blessed. This girl is absolutely incredible.
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