Doctors, Doctors Everywhere!

We had a day filled with Dr. Appt’s today…it feels good to finally be home.  We left the house around 8am and didn’t make it home until 6pm! 

Our 1st stop was in Richmond to Ryder’s kidney doctor, Dr. Winslow (as Ryder has renamed “Docta Wednesday!”).  We love this Doctor SO much.  He got to meet Ryder right when he was born and has truly cared about his progress in life, even aside from just his kidney development.  But the point of the appointment was to check his kidney development and we got another GREAT report!  Ryder’s kidney’s have been progressively looking better at each appointment and he was really pleased to see on the sonogram this time that the right kidney has grown (the past few it has kind of stayed the same size) and caught up to the left!  It was a miracle in and of itself that the right kidney regained function after rupturing, but to now see that it has caught up to the left just shows how amazing Ryder’s little body is.  He was very happy to hear that Ryder is telling us when he’s peeing because that is a sign that he’s getting good sensation.  Now we need to figure out whether he can feel his bladder filling up, or can only feel it at the point when he is peeing.  His bladder has huge bands of muscle around it, so potty training is going to be very…interesting!  Other than that, we talked about Ryder’s stroke, and the new baby on the way.  He again reassured me that Posterior Urethral Valves is not something that shows up in siblings, but that the kidney’s should still be checked as the pregnancy progresses just to be cautious.

Luckily, Ryder’s next appointment was in the same building, right down the hall, at the Ophthalmologist (Ryder’s version: “Da EYE Docta!”)  This one was rough because they had to put eye drops in his eyes to dilate them, which made his vision really blurry for FIVE hours!  When we left there the poor things was burying his head in his Daddy’s shirt saying “its BRIGHT ousside! need sungwasses!”  But let me rewind, the reason we took Ryder to the eye doctor is because we have been noticing for a while that sometimes it seems like Ryder’s left eye focuses and his right eye drifts out of focus.  Well, we were right that something isn’t right, but that’s not it.  Ryder has…wait for it…Sixth Cranial Nerve Palsy.  I mean, really?!  Can’t it ever just be nothing?!  Basically what that means is that Ryder has a nerve way in the back of his brain that is not letting his left eye reach all the way around to the left to see things, if it did then he would be seeing in double vision.  So when he needs to see something to the left he turns his whole head instead of his eye, then uses his right eye to focus on it.  And when he needs to focus on something straight ahead he is turning his head slightly to the left to focus both eyes straight.  There’s nothing that needs to be done about it right now, because just like everything else that was affected by his stroke, there is a chance that his brain will make a new pathway to correct the problem itself.  So the Doctor wants to see him again in 1 year to check the progress.  If his body never corrects the problem, then it will require surgery to loosen the muscles in his left eye to allow his eye to reach further around and allow his right eye to stop compensating.  It will be imperative that his body corrects this or that surgery is done before  he will ever be able to play sports or drive a car.  Please pray that his body (by that I mean God!) will fix it.  We have seen His healing power in Ryder’s life many times before, I’d just hate to see him have to be put to sleep again, but we’ll cross that road if/when we get to it.

After that, it was time for a sneak peek at Baby Marsh v2 (thanks for the creative name Nicki!).  Since Ryder had already been traumatized at two doctor appointments, we figured it’d be better to let him sit out of this one.  So Daddy & Ryder dropped me off, and they went toy shopping…and to go look at bunkbeds because they are convinced this is a baby boy!  Thank goodness they didn’t come, I was there for THREE hours!  But to see that sweet little heartbeat is always worth the wait.  I had the most awkward heart-to-heart of my life…I’m sorry for the visual, but as I’m sitting there getting an internal sonogram, the Sonographer asked me how everything turned out with Ryder’s kidneys.  Let me give you a little background, when they found out I had diabetes with Ryder, they sent me for a sonogram with her at 30 weeks because my belly was measuring 4 weeks big.  People with diabetes have big babies so they wanted to check in on his growth.  When she did that sonogram, she noticed that his ureters were dilated.  She reported it to the Doctor who then sent me to the Perinatologist…and the rest is history, Ryder’s kidneys and bladder continued to swell until he had to be born by emergency c-section at 34 weeks.  Anyway, back to the heart-to-heart, i’m laying there with this big you know what stuck you know where and we both have tears streaming down our faces because she asked me what would have happened if she hadn’t noticed that swelling, and I told her that Ryder never would have made it.  We both agreed that the diabetes was pure Divine Intervention!  God put me in her office that day because He needed her to see that swelling, and it seriously saved his life.  She saved his life!  She told me thank you, for helping her to remember that her job does make a difference, and I thanked her…for doing her job! 

Poor Baby Marsh v2, we then both realized that we were there for a purpose, to look at the NEW baby (I’m starting to feel like I’m already neglecting this poor child!)  Everything looked great, the heartbeat was 145 bpm, and the baby was measuring at 7 weeks 4 days.  That gives me a due date of July 1st!!  Here’s a picture of our sweet little blob:

I met with my Dr. after the sonogram and he said that everything looks great, but I do have a cyst on my right ovary that they want to look at again to make sure it goes away.  They’ll be scheduling an appointment for me to see the high-risk Doctor at 12 weeks, and I need to come back to see my regular OB in 3 weeks.  Sometime before then I need to get all my blood work done and a 1 hour glucose test…YAY! 

Wow, that was a lot of information…for you and for me!  Thanks for sticking through it :)  Now I need to go rest my brain!

Oh wait, I almost forgot…Ryder and Daddy came back to the office before I was done and I heard them outside playing.  So I got my camera out and took pictures out of my 2nd floor window (this was great entertainment during my looooong wait for the doctor), seriously, how much do these pictures look private investigation?!  And the truth is, Ryder started running towards the parking lot and just as I was contemplating how hurt I would get if I jumped out of the window…Daddy hopped the fence, caught him, and spanked his butt.  ONE FOR DADDY!  Maybe I should spy more often!

Before the incident:

After the incident:

 

Oh how I love these boys.

Okay, done, for real.