My brave, strong little girl

Warning: don't be alarmed by this post. Isabel is fine and doing well.

Isabel has an elective surgery yesterday. Around when she was 1 years old, we discovered that she has an ingurnal hernia on the left side of her groin. One night, she had what looks like a size of a golf ball mass in her left groin area, so we took her to the doctor and they were pretty sure that it was a hernia. Apparently this is very common in babies but of course alarmed us as hernia cannot be healed on its own. Surgery is required.

It took us a few months to get used to the idea but on our second surgeon visit, the Dr basically told us that to delay it is more for us than for Isabel as it increases her risk of getting an incarcerated hernia, which could be life threatening and would require emergency surgery. We listened and scheduled her surgery for this past Friday.

She of course didn't know but I was pretty nervous about it. I couldn't sleep all night Wed worrying about it and finally decided to do more research online. All of them say the same - surgery is pretty routine and risk is minor. Doing it is also necessary. Luckily I was able to sleep Thursday night as we had to get up at 6am to bring little Isabel to UCSF at 7am for her 9am Surgery.

They gave her some "happy juice" to make her a bit drowsy and calm and at 9:15am took to the OR. We were told to wait at the waiting room until we are called. The surgery is somewhere between 60-90 min. What they will do is make a small cut around her belly button and put in a scope to check if there is also a hernia on her other side. This is very common and then make a cut by her lower stomach on the left side and right side if hernia is also found to sew up the hole (hernia) that is in her lower abdomen.

Agnes and I distracted ourselves by going to the Cafe to eat breakfast. Jaime was at the hospital until 8:30am and then had to go to work. We were called at 11am to go to the recovery room and ended up leaving the hospital by 1:30pm.

All in all, the surgery went very smoothly. Dr. Hirose did find another hernia on the other side so he fixed both and Isabel bled very little. The recovery part was the only jarring part. We were told numerous times that Isabel will be drowsy when we are called back and we will be the first people she sees when she wakes up. Well, perhaps Isabel is just very strong because her anesthesia worn off a few minutes after she got to the recovery room but we were not called soon enough to be there. We arrived to a hysterical Isabel who pulled out her ivy and screaming a the top of her lungs while 3 people were hovering over her. At the time, I was pretty distraught since it totally sounds like she was in pain and no one told me how the surgery went. The next hour was kinda hellish until we realized she just freaked out waking up with an ivy and monitors on her chest and strangers in her face and Agnes and I nowhere in sight. I guess that would freak me out even.

The good news is because she pulled out her ivy and she was screaming, she is obviously healthy and strong and also cannot be given any more "happy juice." Less drugs the better. Isabel only had to take two Tylenol doses so far and seems to be doing better every hour.

She was already acting like her regular self by 1pm Friday after calming down. We got home and took these videos in the later afternoon.



She slept well last night and just have a sore throat due to the tube that was put down her throat during surgery to help her breathe. The tube was taken out before she woke from surgery and the sore throat will go away in a few days. She got 3 set of clean tape on her stomach, one on belly button and two on her lower stomach. She has stitches which will dissolve by themselves in the next two weeks. No bathing for a week just sponge bath or showers and we just have to watch out for infection. So far, looks good. No restriction on activity as kids knows to slow down if they are tired. She is a bit slower right now but will be good as new in a few days. Kids heal so fast.

I am so proud of my little girl. She was so brave, strong, already laughing, and up to mischief again. Motherhood takes a whole new level of meaning after going through that, but it just made me stronger I guess.

Glad it's over and she no longer have to worry about any hernias.

- Lei