Another Good Report

Ryder had an appointment with his Pediatric Urologist today (I always call him his Kidney Doctor, but since I’m including his picture I think he’d appreciate being given the correct title!).  To us, he is Dr. Winslow….and to him, we are “The Mom with the Hair, and the Boy with the Valves”…ha!  He’s such a happy guy and a wonderful Doctor.  He was there the day Ryder was born when he diagnosed him with Posterior Urethral Valves, he was the one who performed the surgery to cauterize the valves, and also the Cystoscopy in December, plus every appointment in between.  So he has literally been there for every step of this journey.  I know that it brings him great joy to be able to look at one of his patients and give “another good report”…and of course those words are always music to my ears!  We talked for a while in the office today about Ryder’s story (I’m trying to get my facts straight so that I can write it all out for the Kidney Foundation), which took us alllll the way back to almost one year ago.  He pulled out his hand-written notes from that day, the first line said “3/19/09 – Ryder Marsh – Just born”.  WOW!  Seeing that in writing and then reading all of the medical terms written underneath really put into perspective that it has been almost an entire year and Ryder has come a long, long way.

It’s kind of bitter sweet to sit here and read through the notes from all of my Pre-natal sonograms (these were sent to Dr. Winslow’s office) about Ryder, almost like they aren’t really about him, because…well…he’s fine!  How can he be fine, if things were this bad?!  Each week his kidneys got bigger and bigger, I can see the measurements in writing right in front of me.  It says that he had severe bilateral Hydronephrosis (swelling in both kidneys), his Ureters were widely dilated and coiled, his bladder had a “keyhole configuration at the neck” and “outpouching at the dome” plus thickened walls, all of this because of some Lower Urinary Tract Obstruction which they couldn’t quite pinpoint by looking through me, through him.  Now we know that all of that damage was caused because two little tiny flaps of skin grew the wrong way.

Those are just the facts though, the hardest part about reading the notes are the predictions…”Chronic renal disease may manifest in childhood”, “the kidneys are echogenic, suggesting some damage may have already occurred”, “urinary reflux, chronic pain and infection, renal insufficiency, and early-onset hypertension all possibilities”…They were talking about my little, innocent, unborn baby like that :(

But, the BEST part about the whole thing, is that now I can push these papers to the side, bow my head, and thank GOD that today, almost a whole year later, we got another good report…a sonogram that shows everything listed above as normal and functional! 

And of course, thank Him for Dr. Winslow.