I made it through the rain...

Wow, what a roller coaster we have been on the past two days. We were told in pre-op by the surgeon that the second day of recovery is often worse than the first. Chloe made it through the surgery with no major complications. We rejoiced and felt such a burden lifted from our shoulders. Greg and Raeya stayed at the hospital with Chloe and me for a couple of hours and then Greg took Raeya home to tuck into bed.

The next two days would prove very challenging. Chloe's digestive system was in turmoil and as I explain in the next paragraph what they did it is no wonder her little body does not know what to do. On day 1 in the evening Chloe's stomach began to get more and more distended and she was throwing up continuously. We tried three different NG tubes to no avail. A trip downstairs to x-ray proved the nurses had placed the NG tube correctly. As I sat in bed with her rubbing her tummy, I began to cry softly and then more vocally as I cried out to God, our Great Physician. He made Chloe's little body with all of its unique complexities. Spina Bifida has given her such a unique design. A design that I love dearly. Chloe's nasal gastric tube suddenly began to pull all of the bile our of her stomach. The doctors, nurses and residents were baffled but were relieved to go home with thoughts of success. We had a restful night and during doctor's call this morning the doctor's announced they thought she was going to pull through. This was announced just as the sun began to pull through the clouds of the past two cold, wet, rainy and hail filled days. Days that were physically filled with the distress of storm systems as well as days filled with the emotional distress of a mom and dad filled with concern for their Sovereign Jade. Thank you Heavenly Father.

We love our surgeon. He instills confidence of his abilities by his calm demeanor and endless knowledge. My one concern was that I wanted someone who acknowledged God as the creator of our little girl. On more than one meeting with the surgeon he talked about the human anatomy and the nerves of the spinal cord in terms of when we as humans walked on all fours. Greg and I prayed for the surgeons hands to be guided by our God and that he may be touched with the knowledge of God. As our surgeon works on Chloe, our Great Physician works on our surgeon.

Chloe's operation involved cutting her bladder open. She had a section of colon cut out and sewn into the top of her bladder to enlarge it. Our hope is that will reduce the pressure in her bladder. Pressure that also travels back up to her kidneys and causes high pressure and damage there. She also had her appendix removed from the colon to be used to make a conduit from her bladder to her belly button to drain her bladder. The appendix was also used to make a conduit from her colon to the surface of her skin to flush her colon.

We hope this will stop the damage being done to her kidneys as well as giving her more control over her bladder and bowels.