So what about...?

The Princess:

When I was 20 weeks pregnant with the Princess I had an ultrasound to see if there was anything wrong with the placenta because of the partial abruption I had with SkyWalker. The placenta was fine, but they saw dilation (backed up fluid) in the right kidney. That was roughly 3 1/2 years ago and we have been dealing with it ever since. She's been on antibiotics every day since the day she was born. She was taken off after her first surgery but developed reflux and got a UTI within just 2-3 months and put back on them. 

Today was her latest ultrasound. There's still some dilation around the ureter they fixed, but it looks exactly the same as it did 6 months ago. Not better, but also not worse. We finally heard the words we've been waiting to hear--she can go off the medication. We'll have to be super vigilant about preventing UTIs from all the other ways little girls get them--holding in pee too long, not wiping correctly, etc. I am sure I will be more paranoid than ever now. I think I'll probably get those at home UTI test kits so I don't have to drag her to the doctor every time I panic. She'll have yearly ultrasounds to make sure that nothing is changing but other than that she should be okay.

*************

SkyWalker:

We had some bad days and got into some serious altercations, but for the most part it's been great having SkyWalker home. I almost don't want him to go back to school. Our problems always stem from the same thing--he makes some kind of mess or does some crazy thing and then when I tell him it's time to stop he refuses to listen and is disrespectful and rude and doesn't take me seriously. Until I explode and then he's hysterical. How quickly it takes me to explode seems to vary a lot lately. We've been doing pretty well recently. And when I put things in perspective, we only have these blowups at home, never in public. When we are out he is always very well behaved. He's a great big brother. How many almost 6 year olds do you know who willingly take their 3 year old sisters outside and push them on a swing? With a smile? He's always coming and getting Chewie out of the dishwasher and taking her to her toys and distracting her so she'll stop crying. He loves his sisters and I know I can always trust him with them. 

He has huge tonsils and probably huge adenoids and will see an ENT in September who will probably recommend surgery. This will royally suck since as we all know surgery sucks, but more so because he will be a big baby about the recovery. And this is the first time I have a kid having surgery who can actually say the words "I don't want surgery." So that's fun.

*************

Chewie:

She walks. I fought it, but she walks. She doesn't run and she still crawls more than walks, but she is putting one foot in front of the other on a regular basis. She also screams. She makes sounds and can say Mama and Dada and Nana and bababababababa. But for the most part her preferred method of communication is "AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH" very loudly. She can hear, she copies her brother's humming and singing, and she sometimes follows directions. She is just LOUD. Perhaps when she has me all to herself she will find her inside voice. It must be inside of her somewhere. 

*************

Running:

I had to cut down to 3 times a week, which is the funniest thing I think I've ever written. I have yet to do any yoga and probably won't. I do have a weight lifting routine that I will start after my race this Saturday. I am training for a 10K in October, but since I am pretty sure SkyWalker's surgery will be in October I'm kind of doing it for the training and expecting to not actually do the race. Whatever happens, happens. I ran my longest distance (4.5 miles) last Sunday and thought "I only have to do 1.5 more" not "holy crap how am I going to do 1.5 more?" So that's good. Oh! And my girlie problem turned out to be nothing more than some low-down cramping so I just have to take motrin 800 and I'm all good. It won't interfere with my running at all. 

*************

Working:

I've been thinking a lot about when I have to go back to work when my last baby is in school. I have no desire whatsoever to go back to work. But I'm sure Vader will have a heart attack if I say that. If I could find a library job that will let me work 9-1 that would be great. I want to get the kids off the bus and be here when there are here. I don't want nights or weekends. I just don't want that anymore. Ideally, I would like to find a job that will let me work from home. Even though I get paid crapola from the examiner I've been doing lots of articles. I'm trying to build up a resource between that and my book blog and establish my presence online again. If I can do some kind of freelance writing or even librarianing (I know that's not a word but I like it.) through the internets I think we'd be okay. Vader's school loan is paid off. Mine will be paid off by then. We won't be spending money on diapers. The only debt we have is the van and the house. And by the time the last baby is in school SkyWalker might be old enough to start mowing lawns. So, if you haven't been reading my examiner articles or going through my book blog to get to amazon, you're dead to me.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Ureters, Reflux and Surgeries. Oh my.

When I was 20 weeks pregnant with the Princess I had a level 2 ultrasound to check my placenta because of the minor abruption I had with SkyWalker. The placenta was okay. The Princess's right kidney was not. That was in January 2007, nearly 2 years ago, and that is how long we have been dealing with this. 

In October of 2007, at a mere 5 months old, the Princess had her first surgery. The plan was to take her "bad" ureter on the right side and hook it up to the good one (you're only supposed to have one anyway!). When they got inside the bad one was so kinked up that they couldn't do it. So they took both ureters and detached them and then reattached them right next to each other on the bladder. Her follow up ultrasound looked great, but she didn't have a VCUG because she hadn't had reflux to begin with... and then she got her UTI in April 08 and in June she had the VCUG and lo and behold there was reflux. In Sept, nearly a year after her first surgery, she had the deflux procedure done to correct the reflux. Today she had another ultrasound and VCUG. 

It didn't work.

The bad ureter is just so bad that the deflux didn't even make a dent. So in March 09 they will take the bad ureter and hook it up to the good one. Yeah, you read that right. She's grown so much that the ureter has stretched and unkinked itself and they are confident that they can do it this time and then that will be it, it will be fixed. At that point she will be just under 2 years old and she will have her 3rd surgery. 

Good. Friggin. Times.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Done now

I'm done now. No more surgeries please. kthxbye. 

The Princess has reflux. If you recall from here and here the Princess was born with 2 ureters on the right kidney. One of them was not emptying into the bladder correctly. So they did surgery and wound up putting the two of them in a new spot right next to each other. Seems as if the weaker of the two ureters now has reflux. 

Options:

A) Wait and see. Do nothing. Keep her on amoxicillin and see if it resolves itself. 

B) Traditional surgery.

C) Deflux--outpatient procedure in which they inject a substance to bulk up the weak muscle around the ureter in the hope that it will function better. 

A) would be great if she was born with reflux, but she wasn't. This is because her ureter is weak. I can't see it resolving itself and the doc said the odds weren't great. We run the risk of needing to do surgery anyway, only when she is older and I am either pregnant or already have another baby.

B) 90% success rate. But another surgery... another incision. Another night in the hospital. Another recovery. 

C) 80% success rate. No side effects. Outpatient and she's back to normal as soon as the anesthesia wears off. if it doesn't work she can still have traditional surgery. It it does work she's only had to go through a procedure. 

Vader and I haven't discussed it yet since he went to work immediately after we left the doc's office. I'm leaning towards option C. The surgeon stressed that all 3 options are acceptable and that there was no immediate rush to do anything. She's not in life-threatening danger. The kidney itself looks great. No damage is being done and as long as she doesn't get more infections she's okay. Looks like we'll be on the amoxicillin for a while. We have to e-mail the surgeon and let him know how we want to proceed. 

I am SO done with this crap. Only I'm not. And that's the sad part. 

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Creak

That is the sound my back is making. But it is worth it. 

I started the day out praying to the wallpaper gods. By the end I had totally made the wallpaper my bitch. I have one section left to do. Part of it is behind the fridge. I'll have to decide if I will move the fridge out and take the wallpaper or just leave it. Our fridge is at the corner so you can kind of see behind it. I guess it'll depend on how smoothly the rest comes off. 

My "mother's helper" has been here twice so far (including today). The first time the kids started out shy and then warmed up rather quickly. Today there was no hesitation. It's so funny to hear SkyWalker playing with someone else. And the Princess did well too, as long as she couldn't see or hear me. I know I could be saving myself $20 a week by having my MIL come over but I don't want to do that and I think it's better for the kids to be around other people. They both have the tendency to be shy and I'm really trying to break that. 

The thunderstorms woke SkyWalker up last night at 2:30 in the morning. Much crying. Vader had to go up and I think he may have even laid down with him to calm him down. We got rained out of another playground playdate today. It's getting very annoying. 

The Princess has her ultrasound and VCUG tomorrow. Hopefully everything is all clear. I'd really rather she not need another surgery. One is enough I think. Personally I think we've had all the surgeries we should need forever. But I'm sure by the time #4 comes it will be missing an entire kidney. Or have 3 testicles. Something like that. 

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

The Princess's ultrasound

The Princess had her final post-surgery ultrasound today. We skipped storytime this morning so she could get a good nap (and because she was up crying at bedtime last night and didn't fall asleep until after 9!) and not be a cranky baby at her appt. MIL watched SkyWalker since Vader had an appt. at work he couldn't get out of. Despite the nap she still SCREAMED during the entire ultrasound. She used to lay so still and be so mellow. Now that she is mobile she does NOT like to be still under ANY circumstances. Diaper changes are horrible; getting dressed is almost as much of a pain in my ass as getting SkyWalker dressed. So the ultrasound was even worse because not only did she have to be still, she had cold metal on her belly! Ugh. Anyway, she looks great, she does not have to go back on the amoxicillin. She's normal and healthy. We have to take her back when she's 3 and fully potty-trained. I laughed at that, thinking about my 3 1/2 year who has wet the bed every night but one this past week. 

We made the switch to underwear since 2 of SkyWalker's friends go the entire night and because I think he is taking advantage of the bedtime diaper. He's told me that he is "allowed to pee in his diaper", and if I don't get it off him right away in the morning he will pee in it rather than use the potty. So we put underwear on him. He stayed dry one night so I know it's possible. But only one night. I know it's only been a week, but he told me tonight that he didn't want underwear because he kept peeing in the bed (and waking us up each night). We're going to a wedding this weekend and staying in a hotel... and Vader is leaving on Monday for Rochester for the whole week. I'm not getting up every night to change his sheets. (Although I do have a system that's worked--I put sheets on, then a free-standing waterproof pad, then another set of sheets. All Vader has to do is take the top sheet and waterproof pad off and the under-sheets are okay. There's a bigger waterproof mattress pad under those sheets too.) I think with Vader being gone so much and SkyWalker looking for ways to get his attention, now is not the time for bedtime underwear. It's the exact opposite of my usual stick to it policy, but if he's not ready then he's not ready. 

And I need my sleep damnit.

I took advantage of my MIL's babysitting and went to Michael's after the Princess's ultrasound so I could get a Thomas track for SkyWalker for Easter. We always do a little gift in the Easter basket. I spent more than I normally would but as he gets older I'm sure I'll get cheaper. Even though the Princess was with me I completely forgot to get her something. Although I'm not sure what I could get her at Michael's anyway... I'm kind of at a loss. She has a bunch of rattles and teething toys and things like that now. There's a Babies R' Us at the mall that's hopefully within *my* walking distance from the hotel we're staying at this weekend, so I'm hoping that when the boys are having their time at the dinosaur museum the girls can check out BRU. I don't think the Princess will notice if I buy something and then the Easter Bunny brings it. And if she does, she can't complain about it anyway. 

It is 9:05. My husband is probably walking to his car right now and leaving work. He left the house at 7:45 this morning. If he did trials all the time he'd have to do his own divorce trial. 

I think it's snacky-snack time (aside--I never realized how much of a goofball I was until I started hearing SkyWalker saying things back to me. I do this with EVERYTHING. Snacky-snack. Lunchy-lunch. Nappy-nap. hmm. maybe those are the only ones. But still. Oh I also say "Did you do a poopinstein?" "A poopsi-cola?" What the hell is wrong with me?).  What was I talking about? Oh snacky-snack. Yes, I need a snacky-snack before bed.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

I can't think of a catchy title

We had the Princess's 2nd ultrasound today (luckily just an ultrasound and not VCUG). The kidney dilation is still there. Looks like her 2nd ureter on the right side is not going into the bladder where it should be (well, duh, it's not even supposed to be there!). To confirm this they will send some type of scope up her hoo-ha to get an image of things. They're pretty sure they're right. So they'll cut her open and fix it. They'll take the bad ureter and attach it to the good one and then she should be okay for the rest of her life. We'll be able to stop the damn amoxicillin (that I have to refill tonight damnit) as soon as she recovers from surgery.

It hasn't completely sunk in that once again one of my babies will be having surgery. SkyWalker was 6 months old when he had his hypospadius surgery. The Princess is only 4 months old and it should be done before she's 6 months. Luckily she is so big and healthy and thriving and she can afford to lose a pound if it comes to that. But it still just sucks. I think one of the worst things any parent can hear is that her child needs surgery. There are certainly worse things, and worse surgeries, but she is still my baby.

They'll call us to schedule the scope procedure and the surgery. Should be in the next month or 2. Hopefully it will be in October and not interfere with Thanksgiving when we go to Long Island. I think he said it'll be an overnight. She'll have a catheter just like SkyWalker did. Sigh. I am hoping that the timing is such that I don't need to take off work but the Princess is very much a Mama's girl... she may just need Mama (and Mama's boobs) to feel better afterwards.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Time slips away

I close my eyes and open them again and another week has passed. It's amazing how quickly time goes when you're not cutting it up into work weeks and weekends. Every day is the same and they all speed by...

Anyway. I have  no idea how much time I have to write since the Princess has refused a nap and SkyWalker just fell asleep nearly half an hour ago. Maybe I won't write in complete sentences so I can update everything that needs updating. There should be a new rushed mom blogger language. Ha.

1. The Princess had her ultrasound and VCUG yesterday. She does not have reflux. What she does have is a duplicated system on the right kidney. Which means that instead of one ureter coming out of the right kidney she has two. And one of those is a little messed up. We'll do another ultrasound in 3 months and if the dilation has gotten worse then we may need to think about surgery. But for now it's so slight that they are willing to "wait and see". The fact that she has two ureters doesn't matter. Lots of people have them (and in telling the in-laws this we discovered my FIL has it. Umm.... hmmm we could have used that information...). She's doing quite well, gaining a lot and starting to sleep in longer chunks at night. We're getting a good day routine going (which of course she is rebelling against by not napping right now.)

2. FIL's cancer has not gone away. The radiation did nothing. In fact the tumor may have grown a bit. He's getting another round of chemo. If that doesn't do it I don't know how many options are left.

3. We bought one of those playsets today. Well, we picked it out and put it on the credit card and the in-laws will be paying the bill. Which is a good thing since if we were paying the kids would have an imaginary playset. It was over $3k. That's a lot.

4. Isaac hurt his leg. We thought it was a torn ligamant and that he might need surgery but the radiologist said it looked more like a soft tissue injury so we're just giving him pain pills and hoping it will get better in 2 weeks. He's been limping bad. He is my problem puppy. :-( And this comes on the heels of my brother putting his dog down (the dog he got right after we got Isaac).

5. Big changes at the library. Seems as if when I go back in September Bossman will not be there. I'm surprised but not surprised. I didn't think he would ever really leave. But he's been doing things lately that I didn't think he would ever do so I guess I'm not really all that surprised. I hope whoever gets hired fits in because we are a funky department.

6. Finally, since I just heard SkyWalker start whining, potty training! It took just a few days but they were hard. SkyWalker is now potty trained, wearing big boy underwear. Still in diapers at night but getting drier and drier and waking up in the middle of the night wanting to pee on the potty. I tried to do that every 30 minute scheduling thing and it was a nightmare. He held in his poop and screamed and cried. Finally I told him he could poop in a diaper he just had to ask me for one. So he did. And then he proceeded to poop in the potty and just wear underwear. As long as he thinks he's in control... We haven't had any accidents in a while. But he has a habit of getting up prematurely and walking out of the bathroom with a turd in his crack. Because he just goes potty by himself and then tells me about it later. Which is somewhat helpful when I'm feeding the Princess, except when he leaves turd trails. He's doing really really well though and looks amazingly cute in his cars underwear.

I try to get on vox whenever I can and read even if I'm not posting. Crikey, the Princess must be hungry sooner than she should be (the nerve!). SkyWalker has momentarily quieted down. I'd better take care of her while I have the chance.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Bad plumbing

And unfortunately I'm not talking about the kind with copper (do they still use copper?) pipes.

We had our second Level 2 ultrasound yesterday. Those of you who have followed me from my LJ will remember that 4 weeks ago we had our first L2 ultrasound to check on the status of my evil placenta. The placenta turned out okay, but they saw some dilation in a kidney. Hence the second L2 ultrasound. I had hoped that it would clear up on its own, but apparently I just can't escape children who have pee-pee problems. SkyWalker had to have surgery at 6 months old to correct hypospadious. This one will need surgery too. There is still dilation in the right kidney which means that something is either pinching the ureter or there's reflux, some kind of obstruction. They'll keep giving me the L2s every 4 weeks to make sure that there is enough amniotic fluid (baby pee). There's plenty of fluid now which means that the kidneys and bladder are working. If there is not enough fluid that could be a problem... We'll meet with a surgeon, the same guy who did SkyWalker's surgery, he'll check out #2 after its born to diagnose the actual problem and we'll go from there.

I wonder what will happen to #3 and #4? Will their pee-pee problems be worse? Will they tell me I can't have #3 and #4? That will suck.

In other plumbing news FIL is not feeling too well and is actually in pain. I think he starts the radiation next week. He's been on some pain medication that made him sick so now he's back on something he took when he had chemo last year.

Think maybe there's a reason my kids have bad plumbing? I'm going to blame my husband's side of the family.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend