Little Zoey's Surgery

This is an email I received from my friend Stephanie in mid-January. A month before we moved to Indonesia Zoey and her twin brother Zack were born. In previous posts I have mentioned Zoey mostly, and this post is specifically about her upcoming surgery.

We were at the urologist this week and were given a tentative surgery date for zoey in mid-March. Earlier than we expected but would be nice to get this over with too. It is complicated to coordinate as at least 4 senior surgeons will be present in the surgery for her bladder, rectum, and hips. Last time it was over 7 hours for the surgery from what I recall and then of course the month in traction in hospital. We haven't worked out any details or if we'll rent an appt or try to get hospital related accommodations so that the kids can be close so we can stay nearby zoey -- will figure all that out as the date nears and of course will have to see if the surgery goes forward or if it is postponed (last time she was almost bumped minutes b4 her surgery was due as there wasn't a bed in the ICU for her to go to after the surgery was to be completed). The goals of the surgery are to put her bladder back inside her body and to make incisions into her hip bones to rotate them forward again and close them at the front and to fix her rectal prolapse. The urologist still estimates that when Zoey is school-age they will need to do further surgery to assist her in gaining bladder continence.....but that is a long-time away and the least of our concerns right now.

Our immediate prayer requests are for the surgeons and support staff involved that they have great wisdom in zoey's case and are able to work together in her best interests in whatever preparations are required prior to the surgery and also during the surgery and recovery process. Also that we as a family would be able to make arrangements for living/visiting zoey and supporting her as she copes with not being able to move for a month (not an easy task for any 18-24 month old!). We'll keep you posted in the next 2 months of any developments/date changes.

The mid-March date was postponed until mid-March. This is the last email I received from Steph:

Zoey’s surgery is going ahead for April 15^th it seems. The OR is booked for her for the entire day I am told. We have had consults with the surgeons for both urology (bladder) and those dealing with the rectal prolapse. We have a great team of dr’s that I’ve met from those departments (5 of them that I’ve met). We’ll meet the orthopaedic surgeon Tuesday next week, as well as the anaesthesiologist and those in charge of her pain control and get both xrays and ct scan done.

I will keep you posted as I receive updates.
Thanks for praying and thanks for reading.