Category Archive: Surgery in babies

During Baby C’s 3-week stay in the hospital recently, she had gone through many types of scans from countless x-rays to a Fluoroscopy, ultrasound scans, a CT Scan and even an Echo Heart Scan!  That explains how our bill amounted to over RM50k!   During that period of time, I cannot tell you how terribly worried I was of the amount of radiation my little baby’s body was exposed to everyday.  But it’s between the devil and the deep blue sea.   X-ray or you won’t know what’s going on inside her abdomen and guts.  It’s a case of do or die.  During the fluoroscopy procedure, my heart pounded each time I saw the Radiologist taking pictures of Baby’s abdomen… all in, there were easily 20-30 pictures!  That procedure only completed about 4 hours later.   Not to mention the 3 days straight in a row of x-rays taken (including one done on one night towards midnight) to rule out obstruction of the guts when she puked non-stop.   Anyway, sigh…. all is over now, I hope.

During the 3-week nightmarish hospital stay, when all the x-rays and scans did not give a conclusive and definite answer, a group of paeds came to see Baby.  The chief paed did not want to leave any stones unturned and sent her for an Echo Heart Scan to rule out Kawasaki…. though she did not have other Kawasaki symptoms. The cardiologist from another hospital was called to perform the Echo Heart Scan on Baby. The scan showed a slight dilation of the heart vessel but that did not warrant any serious attention. The report showed that all was normal but to monitor Baby’s condition.

Days later after all those scans and x-rays, when Baby’s belly ballooned up like an inflated balloon, our surgeon ordered Baby to be operated on immediately and I was given a notice of like less than an hour to be mentally prepared!  That day – 22 May 2009 will forever be etched in my memory.  Not a day goes by without me reminiscing of what Baby and I had gone through during her 3-week nightmarish stay in the hospital. It was like living hell for Baby and I pray that Baby never ever have to re-live those days again, ever.

During her 3-week stay in the hospital, Baby C was given two 50ml syringes of albumin via IV drips to nourish her weakened body, as shown in the pic below:

Each 50ml syringe cost a whopping RM300 ++.   Can you imagine how many eggs we can buy with over RM700++? But it’s ok, as long as it’s good for our sweetie-pie, we will pay for it.

This is Baby C on the day before her discharge from the hospital. Putting her on the sofa-bed for her to practise walking can really cheer her up and put a big smile on her face.

Today is the 5th day that my poor baby has not eaten any solid or semi-solid food. Some of the things that have been going into her tummy via her mouth are Vitamin C syrup, paracetamol syrup, anti bladder spasm meds, some breast milk, Cactus juice and water. That’s about it and my poor baby is still very weak from hunger, all the vomiting, pain and discomfort. She has been on Vamin Glucose drips (a nutrients and vitamins solution) along with the regular saline drips.

When Baby C puked non-stop, well, like every half-hourly, though in small amounts, our doctor inserted a nasal gastric tube through her nostrils. The tube goes into her tummy. Our doctor then aspirated the gas out from her tummy through the tube. Each time she felt like puking, the nurse would aspirate out the gas and dunno what liquid from her tummy. Sometimes, meds and milk that she had just eaten would be aspirated out too. Tube feeding can be done through the nasal gastric tube too.

The liquid aspirated out from Baby C’s tummy.

When Baby C’s bouts of vomiting got too frequent, the doctor ordered the nurses to aspirate the gas out from her tummy every 2-hourly.  This bottle is now hanging outside Baby C’s nose all the time.  I hope she will stop puking tomorrow so that the tube and bottle can be removed too.

We were informed by our pediatric surgeon that he needs to perform a procedure called cystoscopy on Baby C on the day of the surgery.   That procedure is required in order for the surgeon to properly diagnose where the problem is before he performs the ureter reimplantation surgery. 

I did a google search on cystoscopy and this is what I found :

Cystoscopy is performed with a cystoscope, a specialized endoscope (a tube with a small camera on the end). There are 2 types of cystoscopes; the standard, rigid cystoscope and the flexible cystoscope.

The procedure usually takes between 5 and 20 minutes. The urethra is cleansed, and a local anesthetic is applied. The scope is then inserted through the urethra into the bladder.

Water or saline is injected through the cystoscope to fill the bladder. As this occurs, you will be asked to describe the feeling. Your answer will reveal information about your condition.

You may feel slight discomfort when the cystoscope is passed through the urethra into the bladder. You will feel an uncomfortable, strong need to urinate when your bladder is full.

You may feel a quick pinch if a biopsy is taken. After the cystoscope is removed, the urethra may be sore, and you may feel a burning sensation during urination for a day or two.

Images taken from www.patient.co.uk/showdoc/27000310/

Baby C will not feel anything as she will be under GA.  I really hope and pray that when she wakes up and for the next few days that follow, she will not feel pain when she pees and will have no bladder spasms.  I can imagine how painful it is to have a burning sensation in the urethra, not to mention pain on the wound on her tummy.  I’m having sleepless nights now and I just can’t stop worrying about how Baby C will react after the surgery. I can’t imagine the amount of pain Baby C will have to endure.   I’ve gone through 3 major surgeries and 1 minor surgery and I know how painful post-surgeries are.   I’m praying for miracles again… miracles that Baby C will have a 100% successful surgery and an almost pain-free post-surgery recovery.