Roman - doctor apoinment updates

February is a busy month for us for doctor appointments.  We have a few tests that he needs to see multiple doctors right after, or we have to do those tests more than once.  Roman also has a week off from school every February, so it's the perfect time to cram all of our doctors appointments into a short amount of time. 

We stared with the dentist.  Both boys had their 6 month checkups, cleanings, xrays.  They make themselves right at home at the dentist.  The dentist is my cousin, and before Roman was born I was the office manager in his office.  So my boys feel right at home there.  They go in, watch movies, play with toys, oh yeah, and get their teeth taken care of too.  The good news was, even though they both have tiny cavities starting, nothing that needs to be done now, in fact they are so small, and they haven't grown in more than a year, so hopefully we can just keep it like it is and not ever do anything (the decay hasn't even broken through the enamel!)  Roman is going to lose at least 4 teeth in the next 6 months he told us.

The next day was our big day.  We had to be up at the children's hospital at 9 am for the first test which checked his bladder, ureters, kidneys, pre and post void (so before and after going to the bathroom)  I was really nervous because the radiology tech that was doing the ultrasound was not really saying anything to us.  Usually at the end the radiologist comes in and shows us comparison pictures and talks to us about the results.  None of that happened this time.  The tech went into another room and spoke with the radiologist then came back and said "Okay, you are good to go to the doctors office now and we will send the  results up to them. 

I was positive it was bad news.  I had prepared myself for them talking about catheters (again).  The doctor came in and it was not what I expected at all.  The doctor (urologist) said "whatever you are doing, don't stop! He should not be able to empty his bladder as damaged as it is, but clearly he is. I don't have any other patients with as much damage as he has that don't need some sort of intermittent catheterization." We work VERY HARD to not need to catheterize him so I'm happy to know it's paying off! His ureters are also still very dilated but not refluxing at all, another huge blessing. All that means, even though he should not be able to empty his bladder, he is! 

After we were done with urology we had to go to the lab to have his blood drawn for the appointment the next morning with his kidney doctors (nephrology).  I usually check his labs online the same night that his blood is drawn, but I decided not to check them because it would only cause me stress and I would wait to hear the results the next morning from the doctor. 

We see an entire team when we go to these appointments.  We usually start with the nurse, then nurse practitioner, then dietitian, then the doctor.  The nurse comes in and does the usual updating his history, taking vitals, etc.  Nurse practitioner does a basic evaluation, dietitian is who discusses lab results with us and tells us what we can add back into/need to take out of his diet to help keep him healthy.  Then the doctor does kind of a wrap up and overall evaluation based on the information collected by everyone else.   It was another good news appointment!  Roman's creatinine and protein are back down a little and he gained 5 pounds since November. Those are the things (and age) that are used to calculate kidney function. Right now, his kidney function is back up to 43% that is HUGE! In November he was down to 32%. It was slowly creeping up over the last year, and we dropped back to where it was a year ago.  Because of that we are able to go 4.5 months between visits and labs.