J.B.'s surgery an initial success

Josie had her ureteral re-implantation surgery two weeks ago. Although it was a horribly stressful experience for her parents, one that we would like to have completely expunged from our collective and individual memories, she seems relatively unscathed by the experience. The surgery took 3.5 hours at the UCLA medical center (#3 hospital in the U.S., #1 hospital on the west coast). We then spent a completely unenjoyable 4 days in the hospital. Despite a four inch scar across her abdomen, an i.v., a drainage tube, and a catheter, by day two, Josie was back to her wild self and was climbing all over everything. Night of day two brought even better feelings as the catheter came out and then on day three, finally the i.v. and drain. Being in the hospital sucks. Being in a children's hospital with a little kid totally sucks. Enough said.

The surgeon was extremely pleased with how the surgery went and he said all of her organs and tissues looked great. We won't know whether the surgery was a success until they remove the stint (currently keeping her ureter open while it heals from the surgery) and do an ultrasound of her bladder, ureter, and kidney. This procedure will show whether the reimplanted ureter is working properly. We all have high hopes that this will be the case. For now, things are looking good.