Miracles do happen!

Yesterday we had Jay's 1st urology appointment up in Milwaukee.

As you may remember, we had previously been going up to Madison, however in November his doctor took a pediatric urology chairman position at the children's hospital in Milwaukee and since our insurance actually covers us in Milwaukee we decided to follow him over there since it's essentially the same distance for us.

They had called me Wednesday to confirm a time for a renal ultrasound prior to our meeting with the doctor (even though I had mentioned this when I made the appointment!) and said that even though our appointment with the doctor was at 1:15, to report to radiology first and then just head up afterwards.

Well we left home around 11am and got there just after 12:30pm - it was about a 15 minute longer drive than what it was taking us to get to Madison, so not too bad. Since we got to radiology 40 minutes early they were able to squeeze us in sooner so we didn't have to worry about the overlap in appointments.

Just like last time, Jay was squirmy during the ultrasound, but the tech was able to go quickly before he got too fussy. I think he's just tired of doctor offices this week, since we just had his routine check-up the other day.

We headed over to the urology clinic and got there just in time for our regular scheduled appointment.

Jay's shoes weigh almost a pound, as I was too busy trying to finish up the paperwork and daddy forgot to remove his shoes when they weighed him. So it's either that or he gained almost an entire pound in 3 days, lol...

And yep, hubby came with us! He was able to get a weekday off this week since he's taken the past few Saturday's off. He's never been to one of the urology check-ups before so it was nice for him to get to see what all we do and it helped having a 2nd pair of hands and eyes to keep track of Jay now that he's more active (especially since I had to fill out more paperwork and scheduling his next appointment took forever).

So we met with the doctor...

...and he was quite surprised to see that Jay's enlarged kidney had improved significantly!

Last time we saw him, back in September he said there was just a slight increase in the fluid in his kidney but not enough to be concerned at that point. But today he said it looked perfectly fine!

He said he would like to wait a little awhile before ordering a kidney test again - which is the testing they do where they put the catheter in him as well as an IV of fluid and then do some imaging to see how the kidneys drain. He had it done when he was about 3 or 4 months old and yeah... wasn't fun! So he said he'd like to monitor it again in 6 months and then again in another 6 months after that just to make sure things are continuing to look fine and that this time wasn't just a fluke - if the next few ultrasounds look the same as today (or better) he'll order the test to confirm that the blockage is indeed unblocked!

So at this point, we're no longer looking at Jay needing to having surgery this time next year!

Yay!!!

Such a huge relief!

We recently had to switch Jay to an overnight diaper for the 10-12 hours a night he sleeps as he kept waking up with his jammies soaked. I mentioned it to my mom and she had suggested that maybe it came unblocked as the only leakage problems we've had in the past were either due to faulty diapers, changing him too early before bedtime or just not fastening them tight enough! I think it might be a possible explanation, although at the time I didn't put much faith in it, as she's suggested it at various other instances we've had to him peeing a lot. 

The rare chance of the blockage opening up and unblocking on its own as Jay grew was very slim to none and while his doctor said it was a possibility, he didn't want us to get our hopes up. I had kind of accepted the fact that he would need it eventually and put it in the back of my mind not wanting to think about it. Until recently it seemed so far off, then it hit me not too long ago that it was only a year away. And as active and on the move Jay likes to be now that he's walking... him having to take it easy post-surgery... that didn't sound fun at all!

So it's great to know that as long as his next few ultrasounds are fine, we're surgery free!

Thanks everyone for your thoughts and prayers though as we've endured all the testing and whatnot this past year! Miracles do happen!

So that's our news for today! Our next check-up on it is in August.