Another Day at Children's Hosptial - only this one was planned!

Hey all.

Thanks for your prayers today. We are home from Children's Hosptial at Dartmouth after a long but productive day. Abbie did awesome with the sedation. Watching her ‘fall to sleep’ was sort of overwhelming for me (they administered the sedatives while in my arms), but she did great with it – ensuring me that ‘I brave daddy.’ J The VCUG test confirmed that she continues to have grade 4 reflux in her left kidney – only now add to that - grade 2/3 reflux in her right kidney. The doctor seemed to indicate that the reflux on the right side was probably present on the last VCUG, but because of a 20% false negative rate, it did not appear.

Basically what this means is that because there has not been much progress to speak of in the past year, it is unlikely that she will grow out of the condition. Thus, she is now a surgical candidate. We feel good about this determination. Certainly no one desires for their child to endure all that surgery involves, but we have a great deal of confidence in our surgeon and the procedure. Abbie will most likely be scheduled for the surgery in July. Since school will be out of session, this timeframe will allow Pilar the flexibility to be home with her in the days that follow the surgery. We are told that the she will have about a two night hospital stay and approximately a one week recovery at home. If you know Ron and Amy Richards, their daughter Becca had the same procedure and we’ve had the joy and comfort of watching her heal. It has helped us know what to expect and feel a certain confidence about everything.

So that’s the latest on Abbie. Now on to Andrew. He also had a VCUG today to rule out any hereditary traces of reflux. His test came back perfectly normal – no kidney reflux to speak of! SWEET! Finally a victory for our little man!

Thanks again for all of your prayers. We are tired tonight, but hopeful!