Operation Time!

Me at 5-Years-Old The Week Before Ostomy Surgery

The trip home from Baltimore was long and tiring but we felt bright hope that maybe we had found God's cure for me. We had about a week to rest up. Well, I rested up with my Mamaw in her new apartment and my mom and Walter had to go right back to work. The next week we headed to Oschner in New Orleans.

And so began a battery of tests to see just what we were dealing with. The one I hated most of all was the IVP where they injected dye into a vein in my arm and watched the flow of the dye through my now flaccid bladder and kidneys. I so hated those needles! They had to get my mom in the room to hold me down and comfort me while they made the injections. No fun!

After the tests were completed I was admitted to the hospital. There were preparations that had to be made before the actual surgery. I was given 8 shots of Vitamin K in my thighs each day to assist with blood coagulation. As soon as I got over the trauma of one, here they came again with another. It was tough. They also brought in a contraption that looked like an open ended vacuum hose by the head of my bed that emitted a light mist of more Vitamin K. They wanted my blood thick as a brick!

I did not remember my first surgery at 10-months-old so I was blissfully unaware of what was to come. They took me to surgery. They removed my bladder and made a conduit resulting in a 1 inch stoma that sat just above my lower abdomen. It looked and still does look like a little red miniature tea cup rose. The surgery lasted 10 hours and was a success! Now all they had to do was slap an ostomy bag on me and I was good to go!

I remained in the hospital for another 3 weeks. I guess they did have me quite doped up with pain medicine but I still remember being in pain for the next couple of weeks. But I rallied and by the third week I was running up and down the halls of my hospital floor IV pole in tow. I think they let me go home just so I wouldn't run over someone in the hall!