Friday, January 2, 2009

Children's Mercy Appointment

Well we got back home yesterday from our long stay in Topeka. It is nice to be home but now it is time to get the house all cleaned up from Christmas!

Kale's appointment in Kansas City went pretty well over all. Our day started out early from Topeka at 5 am. We left the house about 6 to arrive at Children's Mercy to get Kale's Labs drawn prior to his appointments with the Dr. Kale does very well with getting his blood drawn but he really hates having to be held down. He actually doesn't cry when the stick him only when they have to restrain his arm to long!

From the lab we headed to Radiology for an Ultra sound and VCUG. Ultra sounds used to be simple but now that Kale doesn't like to lay still it takes alot of distraction to keep him still enough to get the pictures! The tech was really good this time and we ended up getting all the shots on the first try!

In between the UltraSound and VCUG we were sent back into the waiting room. Kale made friends with a little girl there also to get a VCUG her mom was from Hutch, they now live just outside of Salina. We also met a little boy who drove in from southern MO. He was very nice and gave Kale .50. The kids/families at the hospital are always very kind! Talking to them also makes you realize that many families go through alot of the sames things that we do, and you always remember that someone is always worse off.

Once the room was finally prepped for the VCUG scan we took Kale in to be prepped. Part of the prep is having a catheter put in. This was not something that Kale enjoyed! The nurse had alot of trouble getting it in, and getting it to stay. Since I am pregnant they would not allow me to stay with Kale in the room while the scan was done. Thank goodness Erin has a strong stomach when dealing with Kale and his medical needs. Even while being restrained Kale pushed out the catheter 3 times before the nurse finally allowed him to leave it out. He also pulled out of the restrains a few times. He is very strong!

After completing the VCUG we headed up to the Kidney Clinic to see Dr. Vandevoorde. Since the hospital is so efficient the Dr. already had the results from the Labs, Ultrasound and VCUG before we got into see him. He gave us the results of the labs and all his levels looked good except his PTH. The Dr. gave us a new medicine so that it would be brought back to normal levels. He also reviewed the ultrasound pictures to tell us that the left kidney has not shown any new signs of growth but the right side was showing signs of growth. They also said that the reflux study showed that his reflux on the right side was grade 4 and the left side was 5 still. (This is the reflux of his bladder back up into the kidneys). Since Kale has gained weight the Dr. increased his other two meds to ensure he was getting a large enough dose.

The last person that we spoke with was the Dietitian. She was very happy with the progress that Kale has made with the OT and how well he was doing with new textures and flavors now. She still will not allow him to have Cow's milk but she did make it sound that hopefully in the next year we will be able to start giving him small amounts. She thought that we needed to give him more calories to help him gain weight so that is what we will work on for the next couple of months before a weigh in with his Dr. here in Hutch.

We were happy with the information received in this appointment!!! We are scheduled to go back for another follow-up in 6 months!

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Dreiling Family Slide Show! Compiled December 2010