Mike astutely pointed out that Jude is karate chopping us in this photo. Maybe he'll be a black belt!
Well, I would say our guy is no longer my little infant. He is all baby. He was 12.1 lbs at 2 months! He is healthy to say the least and quickly gaining on his older sister who only weighed 20.0 lbs at her 17 month appointment.
On Monday I spent over 4 long hours at Children's Hospital getting tests done on Jude. Let me tell you - it was a long 4 hours. Jude had to have a renogram test done which normally takes 90 minutes. Normally. But it our case, it took 50 minutes for the nurses to find a vein to give Jude his IV and it took them five tries of poking a needle in him before they found one. His poor little ankles are so bruised right now. He was crying so hard while they were looking for vein that he head was pretty much florescent red. The asked me if I wanted them to stop trying, well, then I would have had to come back into the hospital at another date for him to go through the whole ordeal again! I told them to push ahead. During the renogram test they pump radioactive chemicals through his body to examine how the kidneys are functioning. So that ended up being about 2 1/2 hours. After that test, he had a more intense 30 minute ultrasound and they watched him pee to see how his bladder system is working.
We talked to the doctor today and we scheduled his surgery for 7am, November 12. The results of the test showed that one of his ureters is blocked by a piece of skin and that NEEDS to be taken care of. We also learned that he has grade 3 (of 5 grades) reflux in his kidneys. Reflux means that urine is passing through his tubes, but then being kicked back UP to his kidneys instead of exiting his system; this is destructive over time. And we learned that the upper pole of his left kidney is basically not functioning. We had a couple of choices for what we could do, but we went with the least intrusive surgery for right now (which was to get that piece of skin removed at the bottom of his left tube) and we'll keep watch on how his kidneys are doing in the next 2 years. He could grow out of the reflux and it could be a non issue that the upper pole on his left kidney doesn't work (it is not a necessary part for the body, but it could be obstructive).
As long as we make regular appointments with the urologists to see how his kidneys are working in the next few years, it sounds like he should be fine. Thank the Lord for our good doctors and technology that helps us!
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