Wednesday Night Update

We are finally in our room in the West Tower at TCH. Mitch's surgery went well--no surprises. He has two incisions, one on his back and one on his lower belly. The doctor said that the right kidney was very blown out, and that his urethra looked clear, which means the first surgeries worked. Mitch has mostly been sleeping, but he does wake up to eat a little. He's had some Pedialyte and some breastmilk, so that is good. His urine output is also good, which is very important when one has kidney surgery. The hardest part of this is seeing him in pain. He's on Morphine, so that works for a short while. We're hoping the night is mainly uneventful. Thanks for all your prayers and well-wishes.

Pre-Op

We had our pre-op appointment today with Dr. G. We learned that Mitch's surgery is at 11:30 CST tomorrow (Wednesday, 12/9) morning, and it should take about 1.5 hours. He'll have two incisions--one on the back and a low one on the front. We thought we'd only be hospitalized overnight, but Dr. G changed his mind and we'll be in for two nights, and we should be discharged after rounds early Friday morning. We are anxious to get this surgery behind us. The troubling part of this whole issue is that we do not know the state of Mitch's bladder function. We are hoping that his bladder will empty normally and not start refluxing up into his healthy left kidney. Mitch will be followed very closely, with ultrasounds every 4 months or so to assess his kidney size and to note if there is any dilitation.

We'll update tomorrow after the surgery.

Big Week Ahead

It's been a busy month, and this week is a big week in our house. Mitch will have his right kidney removed on Wednesday, December 9th. While we are anxious, we are ready to just have the surgery behind us. My parents fly in tomorrow, and they'll be on hand to be with Henry. We have our pre-op appointment on Tuesday, so we'll learn more then, but we do know we'll be in the hospital on Wednesday night for sure, and, hopefully, if Mitch is doing well, we can go home on Thursday.

Mitch had an appointment with his Nephrologist last week, and it went well. Like she says, he'll be followed closely, but we're hoping for lots of boring Renal visits. His labs came back normal, and his Bicarbonate level was good. On the high side of normal, but still normal, which means the medicine is working. He's on a relatively low dose of Bicitra. We don't know if his doctor will decrease the dose, but it's not likely because he'll need more as he grows.

Please keep Mitch and his doctors in your prayers. We appreciate it!

Catching Up

With birthdays, a wedding, a baptism, and visitors, October really flew by. Let's start with our big boy, Henry. He had his 3-year check-up and looks great. He's in the 90th and 95th percentile for weight and height, respectively. Not that we are surprised--he is a big boy! He did a great job as ring bearer in Uncle Dan and Aunt Jamie's wedding in Indianapolis. He made it down and the aisle and watched the ceremony. We were so proud of him! Henry also had a great Halloween. He went as Clifford the Big Red Dog, and he loved trick or treating. Halloween is extra fun now that we have a child who is into it!

Mitchell has also had a good month. He is growing and thriving!

We started him on solids because of his reflux and have had good success. So far, he's showing signs of being like his brother by eating everything! He had a few busy appointments at Texas Children's. The big news is that he will have his right kidney removed on December 9th. According to his Urologist, he should only have to be in the hospital overnight, which is amazing. While the thought of surgery is scary, we know this is the best decision. The right kidney is essentially doing nothing but holding onto a lot of urine, making it more problematic than helpful. Please keep him in your thoughts and prayers as we approach the surgery.

Mitchell was baptized on All Saints' Day at Emmanuel Episcopal Church here in Houston. Our dear friends, Eddie and Risha, flew in from Chicago and are Mitch's Godparents.

Uncle Pete served as our family representative from D.C. It was a great weekend.

We also had a visit from my best friend, Lyndsie. You'll see in the pictures below that Lyndsie's number one fan is Kirby. He has loved her since she babysat for him as a little puppy, and, apparently, Kirby still thinks he's the size of a puppy when he attempts to sit on Lyndsie's lap. :)

Guitar Hero

Henry is gearing up to be a rock star like his dad.

Happy Birthday, Henry!

Henry turned three yesterday! He celebrated by bringing cupcakes to school, and he was excited about the gold crown his teacher gave him to wear. Unlike last year, when he was scared of his flaming Elmo cake, he LOVED his Cars cake, adorned with Lightening McQueen and Mater. We shared it with Juju, who is visiting from PA, and Filo, our cleaning lady. Andy is out of town until Friday, so we'll have another celebration then. I'll post some pics soon!

Henry is very verbal, and he talks like a regular person now, which cracks us up. He'll come up to us and say "C'mon, guys, let's go play this game!" He also remembers EVERYTHING, which is, of course, a blessing and a curse. He has many of his books memorized, and he loves to fill in the story when we pause. He continues to enjoy school and swim lessons. He was promoted to the Dolphin class a few weeks ago. (You didn't think his swimmer parents would let him slip up on that front, did you?) He's learning front crawl, and he can retrieve rings from the bottom of the pool.

Recently, Henry has dropped his usual three hour afternoon nap. I still try, but it's becoming increasingly clear that it's not happening. He has some quiet time in his room, and that's about it. He is pretty tired in the afternoon, so we put him to bed early at 7 or so. I was dreading the dropping of the nap, but, now that I have Mitch's naps to worry about, I am sort of relieved that I don't need to worry about getting Henry down.

We go to his three year well check next week, so I'll update his stats then. He's in 4T clothes, so I am guessing he's pretty high up there on the percentile for height!

Happy Birthday, sweet Henry!

The Next Step

Today we had a full day at TCH. Mitch started his morning with a blood draw, isotope injection and DMSA renal scan. Finally, we got an idea of what the division of labor is between his kidneys. Not too surprisingly, the left kidney is doing most of the work (91%) and the right is only doing 9%. He then had another VCUG to check to see if the Posterior Urethral Valves were gone. The VCUG also shows us the reflux of urine back into his right kidney. After having our tests, we met with Dr. G. He is pleased with how well the left kidney is doing, and believes it can sustain Mitch. (You only need one good kidney, after all). The problem, however, is the reflux of urine that shoots back up into his right kidney everytime he "voids" (that's urologist-speak for "going pee"). In essence, his bladder is never fully emptying. This is bad for a few reasons. First, full bladders that don't fully empty are prone to UTIs and bladder infections. Second, his bladder is having to work extra hard to empty,which can have long term negative consequences (like losing the urge to go). We'll meet with the urologist and nephrologist together to discuss, but, right now it looks like Mitchell will have surgery to remove the right kidney. We don't know when--not until he's 6 months at least--but likely soon after. We'd rather just get it over with. Because his problem developed as a result of an issue that began in utero, his bladder and right kidney are sort of "trained" this way. He had never had reflux on the left side.

Obviously, the thought of facing a surgery that involves something as invasive as removing an organ is overwhelming. But, we know that the risk of it is outweighed by the long term reward for his overall urinary tract health. If all goes well, we should only be in the hospital overnight.
We meet with the nephrologist in two weeks, so we'll know more then. Thank you for all of your prayers.