Arguably Our Most Important Surgery Yet - Finally Complete
After being rearranged several times since November 2021, earlier this month Rory finally underwent his ureteral reimplantation procedure. This was a big step for us, albeit nerve wrecking due to the associations with his prior infection, but we made it through. Context/Background As I have described in earlier posts, Rory's left ureter was formed with a closed valve at the point where it meets the bladder, causing a blockage. As such, urine produced by his left kidney was trapped and backed up without anybody noticing. Eventually that build up of debris caused levels of e-coli (normally flowing through the body in tiny amounts) to reach dangerous levels, resulting in sepsis, meningitis, and all of the complications that followed. At under two months old, the quick and safe solution was to sever the ureter from the bladder and bring it to the surface of his body, giving him a little stoma (a hole) in his tummy where urine from his left kidney was expressed. His right kidney ...