More Trials

Today at 1 PM, Steve was to go back up to U of M for a second post-op appointment. Now, this is a 3 hour drive for us, so the late appointment was a bit of a luxury, we would leave at 9 and miss rush hour traffic on the highways. Steve could sleep in - after all, he was missing school. So, 7 AM comes and first hubby leaves for work, then Pete off to school. Steve was up eating breakfast, so my turn to take a shower and leisurely get ready to leave. I step out and grab my towel when I hear Steve yell to me that there was something wrong, his cathater would not drain. "OK, go get dressed. I am getting dressed now, so when you come back up I will take care of it." After all, I am MOM - superwoman extrodinare!! Or so I thought. I tried all my best tricks and nothing. By this time it is 7:30 AM, the clinic is not open yet to call for instructions - ER or up to U of M early? The Dr. was very adament after surgery, he would be the one to take out the catheter, so I choose U of M. I called them on the way to let them know we were coming. Our Dr. is not in until later but Dr. Bloom, who used to be head of this department when Steve was born, was in as well as a Physician's Assistant and a couple of nurses. Someone would take care of him. I made the trip in 2 1/2 hours, and by the last half hour, tears were running down his face and he could not sit still. I wanted to weep with him. It had been 14 hours since he had last emptied his bladder. Think how bad it feels to REALLY have to go, but then you can't so it keeps getting worse. By the time we get to clinic, he feels sick and needs to throw up too. They had paged Dr. Park and he had left instructions for his staff to irrigate the catether, but not pull it out (he was on the way in to see Steven). And get the bladder empty!! Now, irragating involves pushing more liquid into his already over-full bladder. He was a trooper with only minimal complaints. We had to have him change positions a couple of times, push the base of the catheter around a little (which hurt him) and some other things I won't get into, but finally, FINALLY things came free and he was able to empty. Out come a couple of hospital urinals and by the time he is done, he drained almost 2 liters out of his bladder. Remember, his bladder was agumented when he was 5, so it's a bit fragile. We were close to a rupture. Thank God, I set out early - it was only 15 minutes from his call for help until we were on the road. Dr. Park told me our local ER probably would have been squimish about doing what needed to be done to drain him and it was right to come to him instead. By the Grace of God, this did not happen on the weekend when the clinic is closed.