Month: February 2010

Noon today saw our little guy trussed up a bit like Frankenstein, Velcroed to a table with an IV and a catheter jabbed into him. We were in the basement of the Lucille Packard Children’s Hospital, where technicians pumped a radioactive solution through Henry’s system to check his kidney function. (The speed of the process, they said, would tell us about whether his ureters are constricted or blocked.)

Things got pretty rough for a while, with Henry crying & me unable to pick him up, being able only to kiss & sing to him. Offering him a bottle of water helped a great deal, though, and finally he fell asleep for part of the 45-minute procedure. Whew. Now we wait (again) for more information.

The good news, of course, is that the little guy remains healthy & happy, with no evidence of trouble. We continue to feel blessed to have access to such good health care, and we look forward to finding out more.

Finn-O looked down & spied a Thomas the Tank Engine toothpaste tube in the tub tonight, occasioning this fun little exchange:

F: “Thomas down there!”
J: “That’s Thomas down there?”
F: “Floating around!”
J: “Floating around?”
F: “Knew that… Finny knew that!”

Today was Henry’s appointment with the pediatric urologist at Stanford Medical Center’s Children’s Hospital. We had to take all the records and reports from his prior ultrasounds and X-ray so the specialist could check everything out. The doctor and his resident were both incredibly nice and gentle, and were very attentive to both Henry and I. They answered all my questions and gave as thorough an explanation as they could concerning Henry’s condition.

In a nutshell, Henry needs a couple more tests before the doctor will be comfortable giving a definitive diagnosis of his kidney condition. Right now it’s just known as “megaureter,” which is a general term for inexplicably enlarged kidneys and ureters. Henry will have another X-ray test, called a Mag 3, which is designed to show whether his ureters are blocked (thereby indicating a physical impediment to the flow between kidney and bladder) or unblocked (which could indicate a malfunction with the musculature of the ureters). The doc said that if they’re not blocked, the situation eventually will resolve itself without the need for surgery. If they’re blocked, at some point surgery will be needed to remove the blockages, but we’d wait until he’s older to do that. In the meantime, we keep him on the antibiotic, do the tests this coming month, and then see the doc again in March to see what the tests show.

For his part, Henry was an absolute doll the entire morning. The appointment was smack in the middle of his normal naptime, but he slept in the car both ways, and was happy and calm for the duration of the consultation. Oh, and he was in love with the adorable baby he kept glimpsing in the mirror at the end of the exam table :D. And big kudos to the Children’s medical center–the facilities are so nice, welcoming, well-lit, and kid friendly, it is very easy for everyone to be at ease while they’re visiting.