'Twas the night OF the surgery and all thru PICU.....

Well, at about 8 in the morning we were told the time they would take Daniel was about 1:30. About 9 am we were told 2-3 pm. Keep in mind he couldn't have anything after midnight.....so try to hide a sipper cup from a kid who is constantly thirsty from his renal failure! There is a little play group that meets from 10-12 noon so we took him down there and then thought we'd lay down with him for a nap (you know how little sleep you get in the hosptial!) Kevin's sister came up and spent the day with us! It was GREAT to have her here! Thanks Brenda! OH! I forgot....last night they started him on the anti-rejection medicines so that his immune system would already be lower so the kidney won't start off with a fight against his body. Anyhow, we got back to the room and not even 1 minute later the nurse came in a said the Pre-Op guy was coming to get Daniel! We were so happy, but then again, the pit in the stomach started. So they wheeled him down to the pre-op room. About 15 minutes later we walked back to the doors just outside the operating rooms and the anesthesiologists gave him a dose of meds that made him get REALLY tired and relaxed, which was WONDERFUL because he was getting really nervous and anxious! He knew something was about to happen! So they took him away and that was really hard! Brenda, Kevin and I went to lunch and at this point we were especially grateful to have Brenda there because she was able to keep our minds off of Daniel a lot! I think if it was just Kevin and I we would have just talked all about him! So it was good to keep occupied and have time pass quicker! Surgery was to be about 6 hours with about 1 hour for the anesthesiologists. They have a BUNCH of tubes to put in him! (wait until you see the pictures!) After Brenda left we still had about 5 of the 7 hours to wait, so we went back to the Ronald McDonald house and did laundry and played a game. We then came back up to the hospial to wait. (The sent us with a pager so let us know when he had 45 minutes left of surgery...but we were never paged! So it's a good thing we went up!) Anyhow, we got up here about 7 pm thinking we should be paged any minute! I went over to PICU and actually found our room and our nurse (Daniel has a personal nurse at all times in there.) Anyhow, she said she just had gotten called from the operating room....so we had about 45 minutes! YEAH!
Dr. Conception, Dr Elihu (his assistant) and Dr. DuBois (the anest.) came out. Dr. Conception said that everything we REALLY good. Daniel did really good! He has a BEAUTIFUL big kidney! They gave him about 200 cc (mL) of blood, which is common. That equals about 6 3/4 oz or about 1/2 a pop can. Not too bad! He said as soon as he put the blood in that kidney poofed (his exact word!) right and started producing urine right away! That was great and what they wanted to see! He said his other kidneys that they took are were pretty ugly and we can go see them sometime next week if we'd like. Pathology has to get their hands on them first. So I think we are going to do that! Apparently we could even take them home, but NO Ryan, we aren't doing that! :-) But I will take pictures! He seemed really pleased that everything went so well! The anest. said that they did have to poke a couple times in the neck to get his jugular vein. But everything else went well. So we had to wait about 10 minutes to go see Daniel in PICU.
We walked in and he looked SO GOOD! Knocked out, of course, but when we started talked to him, he actually started moving and eyes were fluttering. Apparently he recongnized our voices they said! That was great! They ended up drugging him a few times while we were there so that he wouldn't hurt himself. He had a breathing tube and stomach tube going down his throat. We had to wait about an hour before his drugs from the drip that keeps him out constantly arrived. Dr. Wong (the on call nephrologist and our second favorite nephrologist....next to Dr Talley!) was there. She said everything was looking great! She got to play with his old kidneys and they were pretty bad! A lady came in a did an ultrasound on his new kidney! It is WONDERFUL to see a "REAL" looking kidney in there! I couldn't really see it at first because there was no urine in there! His old kidneys were about 2 inches in diameter (across) but this new one is 11/64 cm = 4.6 inches! Over twice the size! But the blood flow was great! The arteries were all looking good! (They take the artery out of Kelle and put it in Daniel, too!) Anyhow, we were just THRILLED at everything! Everyone just kept saying that everything was perfect! Just as they wanted it! We feel extremely blessed to have had everything go so good! Thank you to all your prayers on Daniel's behalf! He might get the breathing tube out tomorrow, come out of his 'sleep' and be back in his private room by Saturday! That is a great case scenario! So we'll see!
Here is our address at the Ronald McDonald House:

Amy, Kevin & Daniel Lords
c/o RMH
520 Sand HIll Road Room M309
Palo Alto CA 94304
(650) 470-6000 is the phone number and then you as for the room M309. I won't be there for proabaly another 1 1/2 weeks. They said Daniel could be released from the hosptial 1 week after he's out of PICU. So that would be actually while I am in Fallon! Kevin will be here. Anyhow, there you go! We are tired! It's almost midnight! We've had a great roller coaster of a day! Thanks, again, for all your prayers! We know they are what got Daniel and is getting Daniel thru this all so amazingly!