Grady's kidney appointment

Grady went into Emanuel Hospital this morning for day surgery to check out his kidneys.  They wanted to do two things - figure out what exactly was going on with his messed up side (the right), and potentially re-pop the ureterocele on that side if needed. 

Matt is away in Seattle for business this week, so it was just the two of us.  Grady started out by exploring the room and his crib.

He really liked to climb on the pillows and then madly try to crawl to the rails - he didn't get far though - those pillows are tough to maneuver!

Once Grady got antsy (we waited for close to two hours from check-in) we checked out a cool little playroom across the hall.

Then it was time to go downstairs for the procedure.  Grady had to have anesthesia, but he did really well with it. And I didn't cry this time for the first time when they took him away.

Okay, so the good news is we finally have some answers on where to move forward.  I'm going to include a little diagram here that I drew after talking to the doctor, which is probably more confusing than helpful, but what the hey -

So basically - the left side is still looking great.  On the right side (Grady's right, left side of the page), they think that huge distended ureter is connected to where the upper kidney used to be, which is now mainly scar tissue.  That ureter is hugely refluxing, and needs to come out.  They will likely do a surgery in about 6 months to get rid of as much of it as they can.  The other ureter looks okay, but is connected to a ureterocele with a little slit in it.  They popped the ureterocele again today, but the bladder needs to be reconstructed a bit to prevent future blockage.  They will do a second surgery to do that and remove the stump of the huge old ureter.  That will be some months later, but I don't know the specifics on that yet.  I'm scared and sad about the two surgeries, but I'm glad that we have somewhat of a plan and know what we are up against.  Because the right kidney still has relatively good functioning at about 35%, they are going to try hard to keep it in.

After I spoke with the doctor, I got to go in and see Grady.  He was in heaven drinking 2 full ounces of sugar water.  He cried his way into 4 more ounces AND THEN 4 ounces of formula.  Here are some shots of him rehydrating.

Stink face after finishing his 6th ounce of sugar water.

Double-fisting

Grady's gut after 10 ounces of liquids!

Grady recovered so well that he got to come home after only an hour or so in recovery.  The nurses were very nice, and said that he was the highlight of their days - they really did!  He's quite a flirt, even after anesthesia.

Grady's napping now and hopefully will feel pretty good when he wakes up.  I think that's the full update.  I probably got some stuff wrong.  We meet with the urologist in a week so I will clarify if I misinterpreted anything.