Tide is Turning

After an absolutely crappy week last week, I was ready to call the urologist first thing Monday morning and tell him we have to do something now about the remaining kidney stones.  The original plan was to wait until Jack sees the nephrologist and then follow up with the urologist. Jack doesn't have an appointment with the nephrologist until mid-August.  We just completed the 24 hour urine collection today and we sent it off to a lab in Chicago.  If you are wondering - and to quote my friend Karen - "what the hell are they testing for that it can't be done in Arizona?", the urine sample is being sent to a lab that specializes in kidney stone prevention.  This lab will try and figure out what is in Jack's urine that is causing the stones to form and, based on this information, the nephrologist will prescribe medication to combat the culprit.

I wasn't prepared to wait until the nephrologist did his thing to deal with Jack's continuous and relentless pain issues.

Then, this weekend, Jack seemed to turn the corner - he had a pain-free, perfect weekend.  He was happy.  I had started a pain log and the last incident recorded was Friday.  We've had four days of no issues and a very happy and content Jack. We've gone four straight days without having to bag Jack once because his sats tanked. It's easily been since February that we've gone this long without having to bag Jack out of distress.  I cannot tell you how unnerving it is to have to revive your child on a daily, if not twice daily, basis.

Given the streak of good days, I'm cautiously optimistic that the tide is turning.  We know the kidney stones are still there, but maybe they are stable and now that we've (apparently) resolved the GI issues, just maybe we've resolved Jack's pain issues.  I sure hope so.  He desperately needs a break and so do we.  For the time being, I'm holding off on calling the urologist and, if things stay the status quo, I'll wait until after the appointment with the nephrologist to find out the plan of action for dealing with the kidney stones.

Right now, I'm just reveling in the fact that I have my happy Jack back.