2 Kidneys!

Yesterday we went to Springfield again to meet with the urologist. We had an x-ray of Grace's kidney that was taken in Bulgaria after she was injected with some dye. It clearly shows only one kidney on the left and nothing on her right side. The doctor wanted a sonogram to verify that there is no dead tissue on her right side that could cause problems later on. To get Grace all primed for this event we told her that the doctor was going to take pictures of her tummy, so she kept saying, "Ne, boli...No, hurt...Smile!" whenever we talked about the doctor.

When we arrived and checked in to SIU medical center, they reminded us that she was supposed to have a full bladder. Well, for her, full means that she didn't go in the last 30 minutes and she was begging to go to the bathroom. The receptionist took pity on her and sent us to the restroom with directions to start rehydrating right away, which we did.

Grace was really confused when her smiling face didn't appear on the monitor, but she sat motionless while the technician rubbed the sonogram jelly on her stomach. They started with her left kidney and found that it was 7cm x 3 cm x 2 cm which is slightly larger than would be expected in a child her size, but perfectly normal for a child with one kidney. Apparently your body compensates well. The screen lit up in multiple colors which showed the blood flow, and little pulses of urine were entering her bladder...All good news!

Then she started looking at her right side and said, "There is another kidney!" She reminded us that just because it is there, doesn't mean that it is functioning and continued searching. Shortly after, she showed us the bright colors again that indicated that she indeed had blood flowing to that kidney which measured 4.5 cm x 2 cm x 2 cm. She also found urine flowing from her right kidney into her bladder! The right kidney was working, too.

We couldn't stop smiling as we walked to Dr. McKenna's office and we taught Grace to hold up two fingers and say, "Two kidneys!" She was clapping and excited right along with us. Some day she will understand that when it comes to kidneys, two is a really great number!

Dr Saunders met with us and said that she would consult with Dr. McKenna and get back with us on whether we need to do anything else for evaluation...From the information in Grace's Bulgarian medical report, she said she would have expected to see a child in a wheelchair with a tracheotomy...Everyone is amazed at her resilience. She also told us that they are going to treat her as a child with one kidney, with yearly sonograms to evaluate continued function. I asked if the right kidney would continue to grow and she said it was damaged and would remain small. They are watching it to see if it continues to function.

Hmmm...I usually like to look at all possibilities so that I am not caught unprepared. In fact, Adam, Blaise, and Vince would probably say that I am negative because I can always see three things that could go wrong in any situation. I call it realism. Expect the best, but prepare for the worst...but this time I asked the kidney question just to set up the miracle. So far, everything that we were told to expect about Grace has been wrong. She doesn't have vision problems, hearing problems, COPD, asthma, night terrors, hoarding behaviors, unrealistic fears...She had only one functioning kidney a couple of years ago and now...2!!! Next January, I am already expecting that her right kidney will be larger. I think God likes to do miracles like that.