Stent removal rescheduled

Judah caught a cold with a cough, so we had to reschedule tomorrow's procedure.  It will now be 19 May. Thanks for all who have been praying for Judah! The cold has been rough but we're on the upswing, hoping we're almost done with it! 

Loving on Selah's animal on the way home from adoration tonight. So much joy. 

Orange Grass in the Spring

Micah says to me this morning, "wow.. Mom! The grass is getting so orange!"

"Orange!" I reply without thinking. I was thinking of the time we had an orange fungus once in our lawn. How could it already have a fungus!? It isn't even green yet! 

Then, I look out the window and see the bright green grass that has suddenly appeared in our yard. We've been getting a lot of rain and the occasional warm day around here. (Back to a high of 39 tomorrow.) The grass is loving it and literally turned green overnight. 

Or if you're colorblind, orange. 

"Twas the Night Before Easter

Judah dropped something into the couch and he was adamant that Dada find it now. 

Time for tomb cookies! Judah was so happy to join in this year! 

So many guards for the tomb of Jesus.  

Yesterday... because today was picture- less

It's more comfortable than it looks, I guess. 

Sneaking in a bootless nap. 

Watching the kids try not to blow away outside.

Hard to tell,  but their clothes are about blowing off of them!

Urology Post-Op Ultrasound/Visit

Judah said no way to the Michigan sticker that is worn indicating you're a visitor who's been through security for that day. (I had nothing to do with this. It was all him, I just took the pictures. )

We survived the ultrasound -barely if going by the sounds of Judah during it - and then we met with Dr Park, his urologist. Ultrasound didn't look great.  Increased fluid in both kidneys.  Increased bladder size.  Distal dilation in both ureters.  

It's hard not to feel disappointed.  This surgery was so much on him and 6 weeks later he still not back to his old normal. It's hard to think it may have been so for nought. Even though, truth be told, we knew there were risks of it being unsuccessful. 

His doctor wasn't super forthcoming about the possibility that it wouldn't work, he seemed pretty confident that this was the right/ necessary choice. However, one of the best things about social media is the ability to connect with others with Prune Belly. It was pretty divided, the info they shared on effectiveness. But again,  most people are in a much worse position than Judah and I think that helped sway us.  The most important thing is keeping his kidneys healthy,  and to do that we need to solve the vesicoureteral reflux (travel of urine from bladder back up into the kidneys.) 

Dr Park is still optimistic that we may see improvement once the stents are out. The stents can cause swelling and irritation, though they were necessary to help keep the ureters open as they healed after their reconstruction. Praying he's right. 

A few days later I was able to read through the ultrasound report and compare numbers.  It was worse than I realized.  Both kidneys show thinning of the parenchyma. There hasn't been any kidney damage up to this point. (Though when we met with his nephrologist this week, she did say it was possible that the tissue could potentially "spring back" if it was just being compressed by the fluid. So we can pray!)

Additionally, the fluid in his left kidney is double what it was presurgery.  The right is also increased, just less significantly.  The distal dilation in both ureters is greater than presurgery. But, it appears that the upper portions of the ureters are not dilated currently. Yay for a win! Lastly, there was debris shown in one kidney and the bladder.  

So,  lots of praying and hoping we didn't make things worse.