Annie Surgery Update

Annie had her surgery on Tuesday morning we arrived at the hospital around 6:30 am and the brought her in for surgery around 8. From start to finish the process took a little over 4 hours. They were able to accomplish what they wanted with no suprises. They reattached her two ureters to the bladder to fix the uriniary reflux, plus they attached her 3rd ureter to the bladder.

Annie continues to recover and seems to be doing well. She ran a low grade temp yesterday evening and was decided to keep her for the night. Her fever appears to have broke but she has been easily agitated. They gave her a dose of morphine to help her relax. Her incision looks good and her urine culter from last night does not show any growth.

Hopefully we may be able to head home this afternoon, but we will see.

Dan

Annie's Surgery Tomorrow

Well we have arrived in Iowa City and have settled into our hotel room. Annie is scheduled to arrive at the hospital tomorrow morning at 6:30 with the surgery scheduled to start at 8 AM. We appreciate all the prayers and encouraging words from everyone and are looking forward to putting this behind us.

Annie's Baptism

We were very happy to have Annie Baptized last week. It was great to have our friends and family present to celebrate with us. We would also like to give a big thankyou to Amy for making Annie's dress. We now have one of our first family heirlooms. The dress was actually made out of Carol's Mom's wedding dress.

Annie posing in her new dress

Fun Time at the Bruxvoort House

Well this has been one of the more interesting weeks. Last weekend started out well with us visiting my parents in Osky. We got home Sunday evening and Annie was not quite acting herself. The next morning she was starting to caugh, so we decided we should have her checked out. Annie ended up having a cold and her 1st ear infection. She can credit her father for this as apperently I was 4 months old when I got my 1st. So she was prescribed some antibiotics and things were fine, until Carol came home. She wasn't feeling so well and by Monday evening had a full blown case of the stomach flu. Right now I am so glad I don't have that, until about 3 am, when I decided I would share in the fun. So on Tuesday we got to have a family day with all three of us at home, what a fun bunch. Fortunately we are all feeling better and the episode passed.

Other than that things are going well. Annie continues to grow, and at her appointment on monday weighed 14.1. She is discovering that she is incontrol of her appendages and likes to stare at her hand, it's cute. Carol has gone to 30 hours a week working to spend more time with her and gain some flexibility with her afternoons. I continue to work at De Lage Landen and am glad we are plenty busy. DLL did have a very good 2008 and our parent bank Rabo Bank was named the 5th safest bank in the world, which right now is assuring.

Amy, Carol, and Annie

Taking a snooze

The girls at Mom & Dads

The Grandkids

It's Been A While

Well it has been quite a while since I last posted anything. I could make a good excuse as I was to busy or tired, but honestly I just didn't feal like it. I have been using Facebook much more, it's easier to post pictures and comments. Things have definately changed from the past 3 weeks. Annie continues to grow and be more active. Carol is back at work and Annie is starting daycare.

Annie is starting to sleep more over night and getting chatty. It's a lot of fun to get her going and she just talks away. We have gotten her to sleep in her actual room instead of the living room, which is a nice step.

After a Bath

The Family

Back from Annie's Appointment at U of I Hospital

Well we made it to Annie's appointment at the Pediatric Urology Clinic at U of I today. We left home around 7:30 and the trip went uneventfull. It was pretty slick in Des Moines this morning but once we got to around Mitchellville it was normal driving. Nothing to unexpected came from her visit. It was confirmed that she has an ectopic ureter. This means that her left kidney developed with 2 ureters, one of which does not fully go into the bladder. She also continues to have urinary reflux which will be monitored. Annie will most likely have surgery when she is around 6 months old, unless she developes a number of infections before then, which the surgery would then come sooner. The surgery would reconnect the ectopic ureter, and depending if her reflux has not improved, would correct that as well.

So now atleast we now have a game plan as to what needs to be done. We continue to pray that all goes well and are thankful for the Dr's and Nurses who have helped us through this.

Almost 7 weeks old

Here are some new pics of Annie from the past few weeks. She is definately growing and changing. As of a week ago Friday, she weighed 11.5 lbs and was 22.5 inches long. So she had gained almost 3 lbs and grown 2 inches. We will be heading to Iowa City this Monday to meet with a pediatric urologist to see what they think needs to be done if anything about her kidney and urinary reflux. Hopefully the trip goes well and we get some answers.

Annie after taking a bath

Annie with neighbor Isabelle (01/04/09)

Hanging out in her new swing (01/17/09)

Annie 01/22/09

Annie 01/23/09