still here!

Okay, so I've been 'gone' for a bit.  Busy, as usual…but who's not.  And I just know that if I stop blogging/keeping a record/journaling/picturing/writing/etc I will one day regret it.  So I'm back.  At least for today.

So let's just start with today.  Claire has had a few urology appointments over the past month to see if we can get any more clues about what's going on with the kidney.  The rejection is resolved, but there still seems to be something irritating it.  So today she did a VCUG.  I'm not going to go into details about what that entails, but let's just say that she hated it.  It was not a fun appointment for her (until the end when she got a big pink stuffed pig and a Sofia the First art set as 'consolation' prizes form the hospital).  But oh well.  She's six.  This kind of stuff is still scary, even if you are a 'medical-kid Pro.'  The results from this test did show that she has reflux in her kidney.  So urine that is supposed to stay in her bladder is traveling back into the kidney and causing problems.  We will see where to go from here as far as correction goes in the next week or so.

There's a lot of appointments coming up as we prepare for their annual evaluation at Mayo in June. Claire and Benson are doing ultrasounds tomorrow, and Claire will do x-rays as well.  Both Claire and Benson did blood work last week and Claire had to get poked 4 times in order to get a vein to give us some blood.  I don't know what the deal was….it's usually not that bad.  But it was rough.   And she was fasting.  Poor girl.  We will do 24-hour urine collections on Tuesday for both the kids as well, so don't call to ask us to play that day because the answer is no.  We'll be hanging at home all day long, collecting and refrigerating urine.  Bet you wish you could come play at our house, don't ya?! :)

So medically, we're busy.  Still have a liver biopsy, ecg, dermatology apt, MRI, a possible revision for the kidney reflux coming up in the near future so we just take things one day at a time here and try to keep everyone happy and fed in the mean time!

But otherwise, we've also been having some fun!  Benson won 6th place in his pinewood derby race for Scouts a few weeks ago and Claire sang a solo in her singing & dancing class recital.  The kids love going to their tumbling class each week…in fact that motivated Claire to do perhaps better than she would have today at her test because as soon as she was done, she got to go to gym!  Benson moved up a level in his swimming lesson class and is officially water-safe for the summer!  Both Benson and Claire started taking piano lessons from our neighbor down the street and so far are doing well and actually enjoying it.  We've enjoyed many a day at the park with the great weather of spring and are all excited for our vacations in the approaching summer!!  

picts to come tomorrow :)