Tuesday, March 13, 2012

What really matters

Anna finally had her twice rescheduled renal ultrasound and urology appointment last week. If you aren't familiar with big city hospitals, allow me to explain our usual experience. Appointment slots are double booked so we end up waiting and waiting and waiting some more and then Rich and I start sweating it out because we need to go to work and now it's an hour past when we said that we would be there. And then it starts getting close to lunch time for the little ones so you keep feeding them crackers and hope that you don't run out of snacks.

Amazingly, this was the smoothest set of appointments we've ever had, which figures since it was my day off from work. We had only been in the waiting room for about five minutes when they called us early for Anna's ultrasound. I was nervous. Really nervous. You never know when a problem is going to be discovered. That's why she has these ultrasounds.

The ultrasound started off well. The technician was young and kind. She easily found Anna's right kidney and began to record the images. She was comforting and told Anna how great she was doing. And then she moved over to the left kidney. It seemed to me, the non-medical professional, that she was having some difficulty and the images looked different to me.

Anna followed her requests to move, didn't fuss and was very well behaved for what was a slightly scary thing for her but the tech stopped telling her how well she was doing. After what seemed like forever, she finally moved to Anna's bladder and then took images of the kidneys from Anna's back. The first round had been from her sides.

We know the routine. When the tech finishes, she leaves the room to check with a doctor, who decides if the images are adequate. If there is a problem, the doctor returns with the tech to take more images. When the tech left, she said, "I'll be right back," which to me implied that she would be returning with a doctor. I held my breath.

But no. She returned to tell us we could head up to see the urologist. I felt a little queasy.

We were about 25 minutes early for our appointment but yet, we were called in to see the urologist a few minutes after we arrived. Unfortunately, we believe that he is close to retiring, which doesn't make me happy at all. I sincerely trust this man. He pulled up the ultrasound images and pointed to the first one. "See this kidney. This is a beautiful right kidney."

And then he pulled up another image. More breath holding. Afterwards, Rich told me that he was expecting the doctor to say that something wasn't right with Anna's left kidney. That he was setting up a comparison.

But no. Both kidneys looked great! Thankyouthankyouthankyou.

Little peanut was weighed (for an increase in her ditropan dosage) and she's up to 29.8 pounds.
So we are going to keep on keeping on. (We have a referral for another GI specialist.)

What really matters.

20 comments:

Laura said...

Sounds like a nerve racking day for momma! When I see the faces of the parents coming into the hospital I work in, I know that is what bravery looks like.

B. said...

So stressful for all of you! I held my breath through your whole post waiting for what you would say. I'm so glad it was good news for Anna.

Just the Tip said...

I was practically holding my breath through the whole post.

I'm glad you got another GI referral, I hope they have more to offer you. I scheduled P to see M's GI because she was so kind and I liked how she handled M's issues. Our appt is in June, I believe.

We go back to the spina bifida clinic tomorrow to talk about our surgical options since cathing is not working out.

So glad you got great news!!!

Unknown said...

I'm glad that Anna's kidneys look great! My daughter has urodynamics and a renal ultrasound coming up. Her last set looked great, but I always get nervous.

We have had some issues with the GI dept at CHB. I hope that the GI they send you to is helpful.

Amy said...

I'm glad you got a referral! Are you staying at CHB? See Dr. Nurko - he's been really great to us.

Do you see Dr. Bauer for uro? We just saw him this past fall - I had the same fear that he's going to retire soon!

Glad you got great news.
Amy (Lilly's mom)

Mama said...

I'm so happy for Anna! I know how stressful waiting and not knowing is!

Tina said...

Oh yay Anna!!! That is such great news!!! :)

Hope's Mama said...

Awesome news! I can now appreciate how teeny she must be, as my Angus who is two and a half weighs more than her. She may be teeny, but she's such a trooper and doing so incredibly well.
xo

Elizabeth said...

So glad the appointments we well and even more so that her kidneys look great! I know how hard it is to sit through those appointments and ultrasounds! Hope the GI appointment goes well!

Elizabeth said...

So glad the appointments we well and even more so that her kidneys look great! I know how hard it is to sit through those appointments and ultrasounds! Hope the GI appointment goes well!

Michelle said...

Great news! What a relief for you guys. I had my youngest at Childrens yesterday for an appointment and we were waiting for almost an hour. He was done with the snacks I had to offer, exhausted and flipping out by the time we got in to see the specialist. It was so annoying. The waiting room was not even busy.

JEN said...

glad things went well.
I hate parking garages at big city hospitals. What a mess.

Kayla said...

Oh happy day! I am so glad Anna's kidneys are beautiful. I was holding my breath the whole time, too. What stressful appointments, but what a sigh of relief that all is well on this front.

pyjammy pam said...

thank god! that is wonderful news.

B said...

I too was holding me breath while reading your post. So glad to hear Anna's update today.

Wiley said...

So glad to see this update! And I was getting nervous just from your account, so I can imagine what your blood pressure might have been doing.

Tasha said...

Yay for good news! My son was diagnosed with hydronephrosis so we have been doing kidney ultrasounds since I was 17 weeks pregnant. He has surgery at 2 months old and has been fine since, but the kideney ultrasounds are still make me nervous!

Sarah said...

Thank you!!!!

Anna's uro is at MGH as is the new GI. We have gone to CH for some things. She doesn't go to clinic.

Amy - I'm keeping that doctor's name in case things don't work out this time around. We are in the middle of switching insurance so I don't want to rock the boat too much with referrals.

Amy said...

Funny - I never even thought of going anywhere by CHB when we went into the city for new docs....I always thing of MGH and Tufts as adult hospitals (I know that's not true, but they've never been on the top of my mind!).

Good to know that you like the Uro there - if this GI works out, please email me his/her name. We're still in a bit of a holding pattern - will move out of pullups again this spring (once we have a week or weekend to test it out). Trying to put off surgery as long as we can, b/c I've heard from our doc that the kids who had it done earlier show some regression as teenagers....we figure we'll wait until we absolutely need it.

Good luck! Hope you're enjoying your part-time schedule. I've been working part-time since before the girls were born... there are some things that are so much harder (juggling responsibilities, etc), but it is nice to have a little flexibility!

Sounds like you're getting settled into your new routine. Hope it stays wonderful for you.

Amy

Wendy said...

Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!!! So glad Anna's kidney's look great!