Milo's 6 Week Follow-Up

Milo's 6 Week Follow-Up

Well, we did a lot of driving this past weekend. Milo had his 6 week follow-up appointments scheduled at UCSF, so we went down on Sunday and came back on Monday.

I just need to say what an incredibly good baby he is! He slept the whole way down & only woke up 3 times to eat. The last time he woke up was right before crossing the Golden Gate. Talk about timing! We wouldn't have been able to easily pull over until we were out of the city. You should have seen Aaron pulling a Super Dad move & last minute crossing 3 lanes of rush hour traffic to get to the vista point parking lot, lol :). 

We slept pretty well in the hotel, which was good, because our appointments started at 8 am on Monday morning. 

I was happy to have all of our appointments in the same building this time around. All we had to do was hop in the elevator :). 

Our first appointment was with the kidney doctor who was tied up at the hospital, so we went up to our ultrasound appointment at Radiology instead. 

Milo was wide awake and playing with daddy in the waiting room. 

I'm glad he was having fun before the appointment because the actual ultrasound didn't make him very happy. He was a trooper though, and got through it just fine. The tech checked his kidneys and urinary system, then checked out his hips since our pediatrician at home felt "clicks" when he checked at our 2 week appointment. 

Immediately afterward we went upstairs to our Urology appointment to hear about the results from the ultrasound. 

Dr. Copp showed us a comparison of the ultrasound we just had and the last ultrasound from when he was born. Everything looks about the same, the swelling is still there, except that his ureters do look a bit less swollen, so that is good news. His abdomen is large, but not abnormally so. She said that 50% of Hydronephrosis cases in boys will resolve themselves by 1 year of age. When I asked her about surgery she said that it wouldn't likely be needed unless he has reoccurring infections. So the plan for now is to keep him on antibiotics for a year to prevent infection and then reassess things at that time. In the mean time we will be seeing her every 3 months for ultrasounds and monitoring his growth. 

After that appointment we scooted back down stairs to try and catch the kidney doctor before he went to lunch. After much oogling out the window at Karl the Fog who was busy eating the Sunset district for snack, they squeezed us in to see Dr. Brakeman. 

His news for us was that based on the last blood tests for Milo, his kidney function is about at 45%. The ultrasounds showed that they were swollen and that the outer layer of the kidneys is thin. So basically things don't look great, but they haven't gotten worse. He ordered more blood work to be done to monitor if his functioning has changed in the last few weeks. He said even though things aren't great, they are still ok because he is growing so well. 

So all that to say that Milo is doing fine. We have to keep monitoring him, but he is a strong little man, praise God. We will be going back to SF in November to check up on him again, so hopefully we will have news of improvement to share with everyone then. 

Has it already been more than a month??

Has it already been more than a month??

Wow, time is flying by. My mom says that the more kids you have, the faster it seems to go, and I'm inclined to believe it's true!

I started to write an update when we first got back home, but after a week I realized that the things I had written about were not truly the things that I wanted to share with everyone, so I decided to wait to update later to give a better picture of how things are going for us. 

Our short time as a family of five has been very good and full and sometimes hard so far. We have been blessed to be able to ease into our new life slowly. Since Aaron is self employed and is able to set his own schedule, he has been spending mornings at home with us, and for the first few weeks his mom came to help me in the afternoons, which was wonderful. 

As for me, I have been relatively slow to mend from this pregnancy. Though I am fine now, it took me some time to recover mentally and physically from the birth experience (which is a story that could be a post unto itself!). This combined with the expected lack of sleep and acclimation to having three kids has made me very grateful for all of the help I have been getting!! :)

Being mom to 3 under 3 is going to be one of those unforgettable experiences in my life. What a beautiful and difficult thing it is. Every day is peppered with trials and triumphs alike as I attempt to meet the physical, mental and emotional needs of three tiny people. All things considered, we are doing pretty well, even though we all have our moments. 

Milo is doing great! He had a bit of a dip in his weight at first and there were some concerns raised about jaundice during his first week, but since then he has been fine. He is growing steadily, is very strong, and is very tuned in to everyone around him... he reminds me a lot of Norah at this age. Not to mention, he is super cute (I'm not biased at all ;^D).

We are continuing to get care for him in San Francisco. His next appointments are on Monday with the Children's Renal Center, Radiology, and Pediatric Urology. 

That's quite the mouthful now that I've said it!

Through these appointments we will get a better idea of his current level of kidney function and take a look at what a long term plan for care will look like for mister man. We are hoping that his kidneys will be working fine, that they will be less swollen, and that surgery will not be needed. 

We are so thankful to everyone who has been praying for us and for those of you who have graciously given us financial support. I can't begin to put to words how grateful I have been for all the people who have helped bear our physical and spiritual burdens. You guys are amazing. Every day I see this little baby boy, blessed by God to be alive, and can't help but think of what a part of that miracle has had to do with everyone's petitioning The Lord on our behalf. Thank you to you all. 

I will try to keep posting updates as I can manage. I have very busy with making our basic needs happen at home, but writing on here is important to me as well. It helps me keep in touch with everyone and also helps me to process out loud all that is going on here at home.  It's a win for everyone :)