He said "no"...

I wanted to post and let all of my family and friends know how Elise did today. Elise did really well at her appointment. Clinic was very crowded today and we had to move our schedule around, but we made it through fine. When it came time for the tube, Elise only cried for a little while. The nurse was very quick today which was a huge blessing! Elise was able to calm down enough to watch her bladder fill on the TV. She thought it looked like milk in the shape of a balloon. But, when she was finally able to go, I saw with my own eyes a good portion of her urine going back up to her kidneys.

Technically Elise has primary VUR. It occurred when she was born with an impaired valve where the ureter joins the bladder. This happens if the ureter does not grow long enough during the child's development in the womb. The valve does not close properly, so urine backs up (refluxes) from the bladder to the ureters, and eventually to the kidneys. This type of VUR can get better or disappear as kids grow. The ureter gets longer as the child grows, and the function of the valve improves. Unfortunately, that did not happen with Elise but the doctor was optimistic that she would have a good chance of the deflux surgery fixing it. As we found out today, this is the second time that the deflux surgery has failed. So, she will have to have the traditional surgery. This involves opening the bladder and creating a new longer tunnel for the ureter through the bladder wall. The surgery takes 3 hours and she will be in the hospital from 3-6 days. We don’t know when this will happen yet, but probably won’t be until the end of the year. The scheduling nurse is out of town, so I will find out next week when her surgery will be.

For now we are going to keep taking the daily medicine and forget about doctors and valves and tubes. We are heading to Minnesota in the morning and I am looking forward to everything except for the drive! I can’t wait to fall asleep to the frogs, to swim with the loons and to just sit and stare at the wonders of nature that only God could have created. Thanks for the prayers! Many were answered today: Elise did well with her procedure, the nurses were competent and quick, Scott and the kids didn’t have any problems at home, I made it through the thunderstorm OK and Elise knew that she was loved by so many. She might not even have to have the tube ever again after surgery is over (that’s one of my questions for the doc next week).

Sometimes, no matter how hard you pray, no matter how many people are praying the same thing, no matter that you’re dying to understand why a God who can raise the dead refuses to heal a tiny little bladder valve won’t…no matter what, sometimes the answer is no.