DC appointment

Today we went to the children's hospital in DC for an appointment with her general surgeon. He is the one that did her lobectomy in August of 07 and her bum repair (ahem, anoplasty if you want the real medical term. Although, clearly, I much prefer "bum repair") in October 07.

To give you a very brief explanation - her, ahem, anus, was not located in the right place when she was born. It was too close to her girly parts (another one of my preferred medical terms). But the muscle that normally surrounds the opening was located in the right place. So the hole and the muscle didn't match up exactly, instead they overlapped a little. He did surgery to move the hole into the muscle as much as possible. It still blows my mind to think about moving a hole - how in the world??? Anyway, the problem is that since this surgery wasn't done until she was 12 months old, she has to learn how to control the muscle. And this will take time. And there is still an area around the hole that doesn't have muscle around it. Yeah, you see where this is going?

So, basically, the muscle that is around the hole has to build up the strength to compensate for the area that has no muscle. And her brain and her bum need to get in line and work together. I was told today that for kids that have had this type of surgery, that it usually takes an ADDITIONAL TWO YEARS to become fully potty trained! So that means she might be fully potty trained by age 5. She definitely has the whole pee thing down - she stayed dry last night, we drove two hours to DC, stayed dry during the trip, stayed a few hours there, drove home, stayed dry, etc. She's so close!

He told us (Brandy and I) that we need to have a lot of patience and not make her feel bad for her inability to control her bowel movements yet. And, as I already knew, we need to be VERY careful not to let her get constipated - ever! That would be very bad for her. And I have to say - that's happened once and it was a nightmare. I had to call my friend, and one of Harlie's nurses to come over and help. It was traumatic for all involved.

Well, that's it for this post. Such lovely subject matter, isn't it? Well, it's either this, snot or vomit around here. Such a life of glam, we live!

Take care,
Christy