“Mr and Mrs Andrews, Your Daughter Needs Surgery.”

I’m going to assume most parents don’t want to hear these words spoken to them. We sure didn’t when they were uttered to us in a surgeon’s office the week before Christmas 2017.  We were gutted! I swear my heart skipped a beat (or three.) That day we walked back to the car with our littlest daughter in tow in a daze and from that moment on I’ve been marking time in before-we-knew-Fiona-needed-surgery and after-we-found-out-Fiona-needed-surgery.

Since that day I’ve been obsessively googling: Duplex Kidneys, Hydronephrosis, Vesicoureteral Reflux, Da Vinci Robot, Robotic Pyeloplasty, UPJ Obstruction. I’ve studied the HELL out of this. In short, Fiona was born with a congenital abnormality that is oftentimes detected on ultrasounds while in utero except her’s wasn’t. She needs reconstructive surgery on her left kidney to preserve it. If you’d like to know more, I’d be happy to tell you all about it the next time I see you in person.

This is scary. I’ve been holding my breath since we found out about it. On the other hand, this has been a gift. I’ve been changing the way I’m moving through this whole experience. I don’t want to over-focus on the rough edges of it all.  Instead, I want to be thankful- actually, I AM thankful. I’m so thankful we have the best pediatrician (seriously- THE BEST ). He didn’t dismiss my mommy intuition when I felt like there was something really wrong with my kid. He ordered more tests instead of assuming it was “just a virus” again. I’m thankful that our journey led us to MPLS Children’s Hospitals and Clinics that ultimately led us to our surgeon. If your kid needs this surgery- this is the guy you want to do it. He has advanced Harvard training, in this specific type of surgery, using the robot that will assist him in Fiona’s surgery.  If that wasn’t divinely designed- I don’t know what is. I’ve felt like we’ve been cared for throughout this whole process so far, and I don’t see why that would end now and so…

Our girl has her big day on Monday morning. I’m excited for her to “get fixed” and for her to recover and get a body that doesn’t hurt so much. She’s most likely been living in pain her whole life, and because she doesn’t know any different, has assumed it’s normal. If you pray, meditate, light candles, hold crystals to your heart or summon your guardian angels- please do so for our girl on Monday. I’m sure she’d do the same for you.