A Little Scare

Last summer Katelynn spent about 2 months in the hospital. (Click here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here & here for the story, or just go to the "Blog Archive" for June & July 2008) She was diagnosed with Nephrotic Syndrome, which is where her kidneys spill proteins into her urine. She weaned off of her steroids last October and her blood pressure meds in January. Since her first presentation of the syndrome was so severe (kidneys shutting down, lung failure, long hospitalization, etc), we were told that it wasn't a matter of if, but when she relapsed.

At her last check up we were told to watch out for puffiness in the face, especially around the eyes, and that usually the puffiness presents itself in the morning, then goes down during the course of the day as she's on her feet, moving around, etc. Last night we noticed her face was swollen up-- a huge red flag! We thought that maybe she was having an allergic reaction to something, since they were rolling down the hill at the park that evening. We gave her a good bath and put her to bed.

This morning, lo and behold, her face was all swollen up. Crap! So, I started by calling her nephrologist, who is out of town this week (of course), then the pediatrician. We knew that we needed to test her urine for traces of protein, but didn't have any Albustix at home (they are not cheap, my friends). So, Scott was able to get some Mulitstix from the clinic at school to test her urine with. (Yea for having connections!) The test showed that she had a ton of protein in her urine, so we got in to see a pediatrician asap.

I called my visiting teachers to see if one of them could watch Emma & Michael while I took Katelynn to the doc. Luckily Tanya was able to watch them, and her son, who is their age, was happy to have some playmates. Yea!!

I took Katelynn to the pediatrician, and after looking at her and taking a urine sample, they decided to send her to the ER at Phoenix Children's Hospital. So, we drove over there and got our awesomely short ER visit underway. (I'm being sarcastic here, by the way).

Several hours, snacks and a blood draw & urine sample later, we were sent home with a prescription for Prednisolone (steroids), and instructions to follow up with our Pediatric Nephrologist in a couple of days and watch for any more symptoms that would indicate her condition is worsening.

Then we went to pick up Emma & Michael, who had a blast at their 7 1/2 -8 hour playdate. And sweet Tanya had DINNER all made for us to take home. All I had to do was pop it in the microwave for 10 minutes. Wow! I am really grateful, because on the way over there I was thinking, "Now, what am I going to throw together for dinner?! It's almost the kids' bedtime already. I'm so tired!" The Lord truly knows what we need and, often through others, takes care of us.

So, I will keep you all posted on the craziness at our house. Hopefully this will be all you see about it! Because there is NO way we could deal with a kid in the hospital right now, especially with Scott's crazy school schedule.