Garrett: First Post-Surgery Follow Up

Today Garrett had his first post-surgery follow-up appointment. The purpose of this appointment was to remove the stent the doctor had placed to keep the ureter open for normal urine flow and perform her post-operative evaluation. The stent removal is considered an out-patient surgery (which requires general anesthesia) with the residual discomfort comparable to a catheterization. The next step is to perform an ultrasound after the body has had more time to heal (in about a month) to get make sure there that no scarring or obstructions in the ureter have occurred as a result of the. Then, at two months after that, his doctor will perform a VCUG (refer to the link under "Have you seen this?" for definition) to test for and measure any remaining urinary reflux on either side. At that point, we will hopefully have enough information to decide how to proceed going forward. I will keep the updates posted as they come.

In the mean time, Garrett is more than taking things in stride; he’s practically begging me to go to the hospital! I suspect it has SOMEthing to do with the abundance of toys he’s received, the bottomless chocolate milk and endless movie watching (the kind that are normally reserved just for “big kids”). He’s even gone so far to tell me that his throat hurts and he needs to go to “the big city” (Los Angeles) to see his doctor (forgetting that it’s his TUMMY that brings us there). I am fascinated and inspired by his resiliency, strength and courage. We’ve talked a lot about the difference between being brave and being scared and how the two are not mutually exclusive. However, Garrett is much less interested in sitting around feeling bad or sad when he has things to do- like play! I forget sometimes that we could all learn a thing or two from our little ones…