Katy's Surgrey

I'll set up a little back ground on this.

When Norma was a baby we noticed that her little woman part was closed, a labia adhesion.  We talked to the doctor and decided that an estrogen cream was the way to go.  I was very nervous about this because it is almost pure estrogen and with the family history, I did not want to subject my child to that so young.  Needless to say, I was not very faithful about putting on the cream.  When Norma turned 4 we decided that we needed to have it taken care of by the doctor and knew it would probably need surgery.  We took her in for a referral and found out that it had opened on its own.  What a relief.

Jump forward to Katy.  Her's was also closed but much more than Norma's ever was.  With Norma, you could see a shadow of where it was suppose to be open, with Katy's it was so closed it nearly covered her urethra which has made potty training harder than normal.

We tried the cream twice when Katy was a baby and I was much better about it than with Norma but it didn't make any difference.  We took Kate to the doctor before moving out to Wendover for a referral and got one with Primary Children's Medical Center.  Because it has made potty training hard, we finally took her in to see what could be done.  That was a month ago.  We were told that the doctor could have used a scalpel and taken care of it in office but that it would be very painful and traumatic for Katy.  Totally agree with that!  Putting her out would be the best and easiest way for this to happen and we scheduled it.

Friday was the day.  I talked to her about it all week and told her how the doctor was going to fix her body.  I unfortunately, had a very hard time all week.  Mentally, emotionally, with my past, I was not doing well.  We kept the kids out of school and took them to my Mom's house and headed up to the hospital.  They are so wonderful at PCMC!  I can not even say enough about them.  They are all about making the child as comfortable as possible.  They let her play with the mask they would use to help her "take a nap" and had pictures of the procedure room for her to look at. They didn't even make her change her clothes.  She did so well.  She talked to the nurses, doctor and even went with them to weigh her without us.

The anesthesiologist came in to take us back.  They allowed Nate and I to go back with her til she was asleep.   This was not happening.  She refused to let me put her down.  They even let her take her blanket but that was no help.  We ended up having to hold her down and they turned the gas up.  She was out in less than a minute.  Not helpful for me.  We went back into the waiting room and not 5 minutes later they came and got us to show us what we need to be doing for the next few weeks to make sure that it doesn't close again.  The anesthesiologist also warned us that children tend to wake up the same way the go out so 20 minutes later when I heard her screaming, I was waiting at the door for them to let me back to her.  When the nurse came to the door, they motioned for the other mother sitting there to go back.  Umm..  That is my child screaming.  They had her in the back of the room, with all different curtains separating the other kids.  I just followed the crying and found her.  They let me pick her right up and hold her.  Earlier we had asked about how going to the bathroom was going to affect her.  They didn't seem to think that it would be a problem but I just kept imagining an episiotomy and how that felt.  She ate a bag of chips and they let us leave.

She was our little girl, just as active and playful as always.  Until she had to go potty for the first time.  She sat down and started and then cried.  It hurt her so bad I wanted to cry.  She would kneel or just stand there because she needed to go potty so badly but it hurt too much to do it.  We put her in a pull-up for the night, (which we haven't needed to do in two weeks) and hoped that she would wet during the night.  I ended up sleeping right by her and she kind of wiggled a few times in the night like she was in pain but didn't wake up.  The next morning she tried the potty again and again it hurt.  It didn't help that we had to open things up again from over night.  Breaks my heart!  Another full day with refusing to use the bathroom.  We made sure that she had plenty of pain meds and headed home.  We had stayed at my Mom and Dad's and I am so glad we did.  Mom and Winni helped me so much and were so good to help Nate and I out so that we could go and feel okay leaving our kids.  They always make things so much better.  Katy slept the whole way home and wanted to go potty when we got home.  She was able to go and it didn't hurt!  Again, I cried.

Today is a good day and I'm so glad the worst is over.  Now to keep medicine on it for 3 weeks and then to start potty training all over again.  Thank you for the prayers and good thoughts sent our way over the weekend.  They were felt and appreciated.