Urologist

We had a long visit at the hospital today. We went for Emma's Urology appointment. While we were there, we also downloaded Olivia's monitor. She is doing well and I think we will be able to get her off of the caffeine and see how she does. If they decide to take her off, then she will need to go 2 weeks without any alarms for them to take the monitor away. That alone would be awesome!!! These wires are making us crazy!!!! It makes it hard for me to walk around the house at all with either baby. Slings and carriers just don't work at this point. If we could get rid of Olivia's monitor, I could walk around with her when she needs calming. Plus, it would eliminate us getting the girls tangled up together. I find out that plan on Thursday.
Back to Emma....She had to have a catheter for a urine sample. Hate that!!! She wanted to send me home with a Foley cath. and do a 24 urine sample but then she decided that they could just see how these test results come back before having me do that. They did blood work. She got stuck 3 times to try to get enough blood - one in each arm and one in the hand. I hate watching them poke and then move it around to try to get more out. Torture to watch!!! Poor little Emma. :(

So talking to the doctor about Emma. She has Nephrocalcinosis. No clue if I spelled that correctly. This is the buildup of calcium in her kidneys that will lead to kidney stones if not treated. So our treatment...first off, she wants to switch her to diarel and take her off of lasix. I told her that they wanted her on the lasix to decrease the calcium levels. She said the lasix actually increases the calcium. Go figure!! So hopefully we'll get that switched. The other thing is she wants to increase her water input. I told her about the cookie swallow and that she can only have things that are thickened. So she is going to talk to the doctor. We might repeat the cookie swallow and see if her muscle has strengthened at all. So we'll see what happens. She is supposed to call me tonight and let me know the plan.

While we were in there, she asked if there is any family history of kidney stones. I told her about my kidney tumor. I told her all I knew was that he said I didn't have cancer and that they would watch it. She gave me some literature on what I have. It is called angiomyolipoma. It is a benign, non-cancerous kidney tumor containing smooth muscle. Often treated by nephrectomy. She said there is a very small chance that it would turn into cancer but it is possible. But still a very small chance. She said the bigger complication is just that it is a big tumor and it will be an annoyance. She said that it could rupture and have excessive bleeding. She said any trauma or high blood pressure could make that happen. I called today to see when my cat scan is scheduled. It will be either this month or next. I did learn more today about my situation than I did with my doctor. Too bad she is a pediatric doctor or I would switch. : )

So Emma and Olivia are both sleeping after a long day. We have two more appointments this week. Thursday morning is Emma's eye exam. Please pray that her left eye is mature. It would be so nice to not go back for 6 months. We also have a pediatrician appointment to see how Emma is doing and she if she needs any changes made.
Much love to you all!
Bethany