Ureteral reimplant surgery - Sides effects of surgery

Teresa my daughter suffers from Vater Syndrome. She too had ureteral reimplants to fix her reflux. Did you find excessive bleeding and a reduction in bladder capacity? She is in week 2 post op, and seems to leak continously. Her syndrome has resulted in her to loose the ability to pee on her own and is intermittenly catheterized. Thanks

You can read our experience at http://ureteralreimplant.wordpress.com/
My daughter bled during her stay in hospital and her urine was tinged on and off for a couple of weeks after she was discharged. She continued to wet her pants at night until the kidney stents were removed 6 weeks after the operation.

I suppose 2 weeks is a bit early. After 6 weeks or so it´ll become more obvious if something is not working.

I am 18 and had uretral reimplant surgery in March 2002.
I don't remember much about my post op issues, or if I had any. The worst part for me was the pain. Right when I woke up they made me crawl from the wheely bed to the stationary one in my room, that was kind of odd to me as I had just been cut open. I had an allergic reaction to the morphine, so it was what it was. My warning to parents, be careful driving home, as every sharp turn, or pothole is quite painful.
I'm only offering this as another example of a post-op situation, maybe for people to get another idea of what to expect. I don't know if my recovery was a normal recovery, or if it's anything like what other kids go through.
I do know that I was a bed wetter until I had the surgery, and in the months following, I could control my bladder when I slept. I haven't wet the bed since.
I attributed my bed wetting to the condition, and my new control to the surgery.
I remember my urine being pink for awhile, but recuperation for me was about half as long as the doctors said. I was expected to miss 2 weeks of school, one of these being Spring break, and I ended up only missing a day for the surgery.
My brother had the same condition as well, and was also a bedwetter. He did not need surgery as the condition tends to go away on its own in boys.

Although I feel for those who have a negative experience with ureteral re-implant surgery, I wanted to share our positive experience to help ease the fears of parents who are reading all these and stressing. As the day of my daughter's ureteral re-implant surgery arrived, I started searching the internet for posts like this to see what to actually expect. Most of what I found scared me to death. So, naturally I was very stressed going into it, especially since my daughter wasn't having any problems related to her renal reflux. In fact, they discovered that she had it during my 20 week ultrasound while I was pregnant with her. Because of this, she had been on an antibiotic since birth and had never had an infection. Scheduling a surgery when you have recurring problems with something would be way easier than scheduling a surgery for your 6 year old for something that isn't causing her problems. But, her doctor told me it was necessary and would be way easier at 6 than if we waited any longer. So, reluctantly I scheduled it for Nov 23 so she would have Thanksgiving break to recover and would miss less school if she needed a longer recovery. Her surgery was at Cardinal Glennon in St. Louis. I cannot say enough good things about that hospital and their staff. We arrived at our scheduled time, they took her to surgery actually a little ahead of schedule, and kept me informed during the 3 hour process by calling my cell phone to give me updates. When the surgery was over, she stayed in recovery only a short period of time. She had no blood loss and no drain tubes after the surgery. All the stitches were inside and she only had steristrips covering the incision which was at the bikini line and pretty small. They had given her a caudal block during the surgery for pain management which worked amazingly. Then they moved her to a regular room where we could all see her and give her the gifts everyone had brought. The rest of that day, she rested in bed. We watched movies, colored, worked puzzles, and read books. They gave her motrin through her IV that evening and night. Very early the next morning they came and removed her IV and catheder and got her up to use the restroom. She was a little stiff getting up the first time, but it wasn't excruciating. She was able to urinate fine on her own. (They had given her some medicine to prevent bladder spasms which made her urine bright orange and freaked her out a bit, but she didn't have terrible pain urinating.) Then we brushed her hair and teeth and she never got back in the bed again. We walked the halls, rode the elevator, played in the game room, watched TV, and did some crafts. She was moving slow, but wasn't in terrible pain. We took breaks sitting in the chairs in her room in between walks. Around noon they gave her a dose of tylenol with codeine to make sure she could tolerate it because that was what they were sending us home on, and then let her eat for the first time since her surgery. This all went well (except she didn't like how the tylenol tasted). Then by 2:00 they came in and discharged her. The 2 hour ride home wasn't bad. We put her pillow per behind her and gave her a pillow to hold in her lap and hug when she coughed or sneezed. She had to stop once to potty. Fortunately the gas station we stopped at was clean and that went well. At about 9:00 that evening I gave her a dose of the tylenol even though she didn't want to take it, and she slept really well in her own bed. That was the last dose of the tylenol that I got her to take. By the next morning she was getting up and down easier and we went to gran :-D dma's that evening for Thanksgiving dinner where she had a blast playing with her cousins. We kept a close eye so she didn't over do it, but her pain was minimal (unless she coughed). On Saturday she was up for a trip to Target. And on Sunday after church she snuck a 4 wheeler ride with Grandpa, even though I was against it. By Monday she wanted to go back to school, but I made her wait until Tuesday. This is Thursday, and all is going well at school. No pain, no bladder spasms, no leaking, no problems urinating or with bowel movements. Her steristips are getting loose and soon will come off. I'm sure seeing the incision with stress her a little, but I don't foresee any problems. We go back for a check-up in a couple of weeks, but I couldn't be more pleased with how things have gone. Once again, I hate that some people have had more trouble, but our experience was not like that at all. By the grace of God, we are past this and doing well!

Thank you for this post. We have surgery next week, and as a mamma bear, I am doing my best to stay as calm as possible and hope/pray for the best! This post is a relief, after seeing all of the negatives. Thanks for taking the time to write this. We are having surgery in St Louis as well, but at St Louis Childrens. Thanks again!

It seems people always post the negative stuff.  I just want to let you know that my daughter had ureteral reimplantation surgery seven years ago.  She was diagnosed with kidney reflux when she was 4 and put on antibiotics to see if she'd outgrow it.  When she was 7, it was clear that it was a permanent condition, so we had the surgery done at Hasbro Children's Hospital in Rhode Island.  The pediatric urologist was wonderful, and other than a 5 day stay in the hospital, her recovery was perfectly normal.  No pain, no bladder spasms as talked about above. 

Now, 7 years later, she's practically forgotten she even had the surgery and is100% completely normal.  The scar is so small and faded you can't even see it anymore.

POSITIVE EXPERIENCE:  My four year old daughter had bilateral uretal reimplantation surgery 5 weeks ago and is doing great.  The first two weeks she experienced night time bladder spasms which were painful to watch, but she only seemed to really get the spasms at night.  I attributed the severe pain to the timing of the pain meds wearing off.  However, a small amount of Tylenol with codeine helped ease the pain and off to sleep she went. At 10 days post-op my daughter was in the pool floating and doing "granny type" swimming.  She's a very active child and I thought the down time would drive her nuts but it didnt.  She got tired pretty easily for about 4 weeks following the surgery so she didn't seem to mind being on a limited activity schedule for a while longer.  It's week five since the surgery and she is now back in preschool and playing/swimming with her cousins as usual.  Her energy level is back up but not quite like it was prior to surgery.  She is recovering incredibly well and her surgeon is very pleased.  My daughter looks better and said she feels better since the surgery and we are pleased with the outcome.  Words of advice, there is a lot of blood in the urine for the first week and once the child gets home it can be hard to control their leakage.  Telling your child what to expect ahead of time (in terms of the blood) can help ease the child's fears about urinating or seeing all the leakage on their sheets and clothes. Buy some of those extra large pads (for the bed - they look like puppy pads) and keep extra sheets on hand.  You will need them for a while.   Blood doesn't bother me but I didn't expect to see so much of it.  Be prepared and know that it does goes away.  Good luck!

my daughter is 3 yrs old and had the same surgery last monday on the 13th of may and also had to have stents in place my question is how was your daughters eating after she was home recovering, my daughters eating habit isnt the same shes drinking lots of fluids like any child but for her eating food she not eating much she eats like a bird and that not like her at all was your daughter like that?

Thank you so much for this post! I am in the same boat that you were in. My son is 15 months old. We found out about his grade v reflux in utero also and has been doing very well on antibiotics (no infections). It is a hard decision for me to make since he has not had any complications with this reflux other than the kidney scarring which it has caused. I am in the medical field and making the decision for surgery was very hard for me. Either way I go I am making a decision that is going to effect his "life". We, too, will be having surgery at Cardinal Glennon within the next month or so. Dr. Ferlit is no longer with with us. He was such a great doctor. I would love to know how your daughter is doing now.

Thank you so much for this post! I am in the same boat that you were in. My son is 15 months old. We found out about his grade v reflux in utero also and has been doing very well on antibiotics (no infections). It is a hard decision for me to make since he has not had any complications with this reflux other than the kidney scarring which it has caused. I am in the medical field and making the decision for surgery was very hard for me. Either way I go I am making a decision that is going to effect his "life". We, too, will be having surgery at Cardinal Glennon within the next month or so. Dr. Ferlit is no longer with with us. He was such a great doctor. I would love to know how your daughter is doing now.

My 2 1/2 year old boy had bilateral reimplation 2 days ago. We did the robotic surgery since less invasive. He is doing extremely well. He spent one night in the hospital and only had one time when he cried in pain. Today is day three and he is up playing and not once complained about any pain. I am giving him motrin every 6 hours just so he doesnt have any pain. I live in Chicago so he had his surgery at the Lurie Childrens hospital. His surgery was 5hours because he had a duplicated collecting system and a bulge in his bladder. So find the right Dr!! 

This post of yours made me feel a bit more at ease .Glad u had a good experience . How old was your daughter ? My daughter is 8 and schedule for surgery soon .

Has anyone that has had there child have this surgery to still have a swollen ureter afterwards? My daughter had this surgery on both sides when she was 10 months old. We went to her first post op appoimtment and they said one side was still swollen so we need to go back in two months for another ultra sound. The surgeon mentioned another surgery to put stents in for a little bit if it still is when we go back. Im terrified. She had a horrible experience with the surgery and i dont want to put her through another surgery. nd i cant find any info in this situation or if anyone has had the same experience. Any help or input would help. Thank you!

when my oldest daughter was a baby , she too had bilateral reimplants. the worst part of the surgery, were the "Bladder Spasms"., she really suffered! she had to be given strong medicine, I thinking it was morphine, to literally sedate her. I was heartbroken.