Monday, June 23 Banks went in for surgery at GHS at 8am. He was in surgery for 3.5 hours, which felt like an eternity. Again, we are so blessed to have been surrounded by both of our parents during the surgery, and we had the prayers of so many more. Banks made it through surgery like a champ, and was ready to snuggle with momma and nurse within 15 minutes of when Patrick and I got to go back to recovery to see him. Dr.Monroe felt that everything had gone well except for the stent placement, which slid into the upper ureter rather than the lower which would have been "more ideal." He stayed in the hospital for 2 nights, and got the original drain and catheter out before we left. With the exception of having an adverse reaction to Loritab (made him really hyper and over-stimulated), the hospital stay was uneventful and our boy seemed to be on the road to recovery. We took him home Wednesday afternoon on Tylenol only.
Once we got him home, Banks had a decent night Wednesday night with the exception of requiring a couple of doses of Tylenol for pain management. Thursday he seemed to be getting more fussy instead of less. He didn't sleep hardly at all Thursday night. Friday was progressively worse, and we decided to call the Dr office. Dr.Teague (Dr.Monroe's partner) was on call for the weekend. Dr.Teague felt the fussiness was due to typical soreness from having major kidney surgery and advised that we continue Tylenol and monitoring him. Friday night was as bad as Thursday night, and again Saturday and Saturday night. We knew something was up. We spoke with Dr.Teague again Sat, and he told Patrick to do some mashing on Banks tummy to see if it felt hard or if it seemed to hurt him. Well, he was already so fussy it was hard to tell. Sunday morning Banks was very obviously uncomfortable. Patrick was trying to calm him down and thought he might have been hot, so he undressed him. When he picked him up, I noticed from behind that his right side was bulging. At that point we knew we were taking him back to the hospital. We called Dr.Teague again and off to the hospital we went for an ultrasound. The ultrasound showed that where the ureter was reattached to the kidney was leaking, and resulted in what is called a urenoma. The urenoma needed to be drained, requiring an immediate surgery guided by CT scan to place a drain. So Banks went back into surgery and spent Sunday night in the hospital again. During this stay, they tried other forms of pain meds (hydrocodone), all which had the same effect on him as the Loritab. So, he was up all night again Sunday night. Finally, on Monday afternoon Dr.Teague and Dr.Monroe came in and they suggested we try oxycodone (Percocet) and if he tolerated that we could come home. Luckily, he did tolerate that better. We were discharged on Monday evening with the drain in his side and instructions to measure and record the output until Thursday, when he would return for another ultrasound and hopefully have the drain removed.
Thursday, Patrick and I took him for the follow up ultrasound and appointment, and although Dr.Monroe feels the urenoma looks better, it is still draining too much to take out the drain.
We'll be following up again this week to see if he can get the drain removed. Then he'll have another ultrasound in about a month to see if the surgery was successful in fixing the obstructed ureter and hydronephrosis, and to remove the stent.
Although this has been the most difficult couple of weeks of mine and Patrick's life, if the outcome is successful for making Banks have two functioning kidneys, it'll all be worth it.
This experience has also made us feel very blessed for a number of reasons. Although sending our 6 month old into surgery was beyond difficult, it only takes a few minutes of being in the Children's Hospital to realize how fortunate we are. Also, we truly have the most supportive and amazing family and friends we could ask for. Hopefully this experience will be over soon.
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