Goodbye Nephrostomy!

Good report from Seattle today! Kaden's kidney seems to be draining! Not perfectly, but we'll take what we can get! When they pulled his nephrostomy it was wrapped around his stent. As they pulled it out they ended up pulling his stent into his kidney wall. He's not in any pain so we will try to leave it as is for now. We'll go in and get an xray taken within a few days so the doctors can look at it again. Hopefully he can last another 5 weeks!

Nothing ever goes as planned with this boy! What was supposed to take 2 hours took 5 1/2. But we're so happy it's gone! 

Took 6 doctors! (And yes, I got in trouble for taking pictures! Better to ask forgiveness that permission, right?)

Here's a picture I found on the Internet to show you what I'm talking about:

At the end of every tube is a coil. The stent runs from the kidney to the bladder. The nephrostomy goes from kidney straight out the back. Those coil wrapped around each other.

Victory

Taylor won her tournament!

Emma finished her basketball season with only 1 loss! Way to go girls!  (At the end if the year pizza party. They all shoved something in their mouths... Have no idea what! Haha, tweens!)

Adiós

This smile can only mean one thing!

We're outta here... And fully stocked!

Sweet Life

Apparently there's life outside these hospital walls!

Taylor left yesterday for a volleyball tournament in Portland. Can't believe I'm missing it! :( First one I have ever missed!

Emmers had a soccer game bright and early. She's loving her alone time with her dad!

Ethan left on Thursday to go with his friend, Derek, to the High School basketball state tournament. Richland plays in the state championship today!!! GO BOMBERS! They went to the zoo yesterday and are having a blast!

I'm so thankful for such good friends that have done so much while I'm away! They have brought things for Kaden, meals to the family, helped cart my kids around and are now taking them to fun places! I'm the luckiest gal around!

TGIF

It's been a good day so far! We had a great night sleep, only waking up a couple times for vitals and potty breaks. First thing this morning they capped his nephrostomy tube! He is a bagless boy now! A few hours later he started having some kidney pain. They are worried it isn't draining properly but want to give it some more time. Pain medicine kicked in and he's been fine since. He also got a shower for the first time all week! Yeah for cleanliness!

We're trying to pass the time here without going stir crazy! Kaden walked all the way to the playroom with little assistance. We played a game of pool and the xbox for a little bit. We found Qwirkle and brought it back to the room to play. We've played our favorite, Mormon Rook a few times (but with different cards that my friend gave us).

Kaden's favorite - Mormon Rook. He has the best luck - he normally beats me!

After Qwirkle, we had a highest tower contest.

4 PM UPDATE: Kaden is "leaking". Whenever he stands up he has a continuous drip! We found out during the xray yesterday that his stent is all the way down in his urethra. They were glad it wasn't sitting along his bladder wall (which happened last time and contributed to the stone problem) but we're not sure this is going to work. Dr. Lendvay should be coming in soon.

Kaden loves to put up his feet while we go for rides!

 8 PM UPDATE:
Kaden is back in surgery. Should be a fairly easy procedure to fix his stent. They'll do a dye test through his nephrostomy to check if his kidney is draining. Never a dull moment!

10 PM UPDATE: Kaden is out of surgery. The stent was way down in the urethra as we thought, making his urine leak. The dye test through the nephrostomy showed swelling at the connection site but just a little bit of dye made it down the ureter. Yeah!

Hopefully this isn't too gross (I love this stuff!) - but this is the stent in the urethra.

Kaden in recovery. I love how they wrap him up in a cocoon!

I Can See the Light

We have had a great day! We waited all morning waiting to be taken back to radiology. Kaden had been fasting since midnight. We passed time by making it to the couch!

Look at that face! Someone's proud of himself!

Then we hopped in the wheelchair and went to the play room. I told Kaden he could play the xbox if he beat me in a game of chess! Guess who won?

When we got back to our room our roommate had been transferred to Rehab. This note and gift card were left on our table:

"Hope this helps after the past few long nights. Wishing you and your son the best. -Edwards family" (Their son wakes up every hour all night long)

My heart sank! Suddenly this "noisy" room was all too quiet!

I repented quickly for all my murmuring and made a promise to myself to be a better roommate!

Kaden finally went to get his foley out at 1pm. All went well and the stent stayed in place. He did NOT like having that done, but he feels better now that it's out....and he got to eat!

9 PM UPDATE:
Kaden continues to feel better and better. His pain meds sure make him loopy. Some of the things he says/does is hilarious! Tonight while on our way to the bathroom, he was talking to the fish that's inlayed on the floor and tried to grab the "fish food" (container of sanitizing wipes) for the poor hungry fishie. 

Later he was admiring his incisions calling them his new friends. He's especially attached to his belly button incision :) Looking at his belly button he said, "Look at what they did to you, you beautiful thing!"

Tonight he just wanted some snuggles. When he's not feeling well (especially when he has the foley in) he doesn't want to be touched or want anyone/thing is his personal space. So I was thrilled he was feeling good enough for some loves! Such a mamma's boy and I love it!

Sleepless in Seattle

Dr. Lendvay finished surgery around 7pm last night. They finally brought him to our room around 8pm. Everything went really well. He had an incredible amount of scar tissue which is what caused the blockage. They kept in the nephrostomy tube. They'll try to cap it in a day or two and if he does well then they will remove it.

He woke up long enough to realize he still had his nephrostomy tube then went right back to sleep. He didn't wake up again until almost midnight. 

Our night was pretty miserable. We didn't get much sleep! He was up until about 4am. He kept asking for his Lego sets....but he was in too much pain to really do anything and we have a lovely roommate that we didn't want to disturb. By the time he got to sleep, the roommate was up and louder than all get out! He is 4 years old and doesn't have a quiet button....reminds me of some other little boy when he was that age! :) Anyway, if the nurse wasn't in checking on us, she was in checking on the roommate. Made it for a long night. Kaden's bowel's haven't quite woken up yet so he is in a lot of pain! His stomach is so big and distended. Reminds me of his first surgery in Jan of last year. Hopefully it won't get that bad! We finally made it to a sitting up position - for about 3 minutes! WAHOO! Our goal for the day is to make it to the chair.

Way to go, bud!

It is so hard when your child is in so much pain and just wants some peace and quiet but there's commotion going on all around! Our roommate is a VERY talkative little boy with a mom and dad and grandma and grandpa here. They are a noisy bunch! We are in the space closest to the door, so they come in and out and in and out. This roommate bit is for the dumps! I'm not complaining, am I?! I just cannot explain how awkward it is!

12:00 PM UPDATE:

Yeah!!!! Kaden finally tooted and can actually get a smile on his face! Legos were is first request! His belly is still distended but he already feels better! Good thing those powerful Moody genes kicked in!

7:00 PM UPDATE:

Kaden has done great this afternoon/evening. He even got up and walked across the hall! He is still in quite a bit of pain, but his belly is so much better! Thank heavens! He's exhausted from all his hard work and is crashed, sleeping soundly....hopefully for the night! Good work today, Kaden! 

On tomorrow's schedule: No eating or drinking after midnight. They are going to remove the foley (catheter) but they need to do it while they x-ray to be sure to not dislodge the stent. They will have IR and anesthesia ready just in case that happens. The next day (Friday) we will cap the nephrostomy tube and hope the kidney starts to drain! If it does, then the day after that (Sat) he'll go under general anesthesia again to get the neph tube removed and possibly replace the stent (they are concerned that the stent may be too long). Whew. Hopefully this all goes as planned - I'm ready to get home!

(Hoping) 3rd Time's a Charm!

Kaden's surgery is scheduled for 10:30am on Tues, March 4th. We left on Monday and ended up having to go to Portland, then to Seattle because the pass was closed. Took us 6 hours. I brought my parents with me - they are staying with Coray for a few days then heading on down to Florida to stay with Amy Jo's kids. We had dinner with Coray, Kat and Amy at Anthonys....a delicious dinner right on the water. Then we checked into a hotel in downtown Seattle with beautiful views of the city.

This morning we went to Target to get some Lego sets. Kaden thought it was the coolest Target EVER cause it had multiple stories and an escalator. Even had an escalator for the carts! Then we hurried to See's Candies to pick up some suckers - my staple for hospital stays! Kaden didn't seem nervous or scared until after this when we were on our way to the hospital. He kept saying, "I really don't want to do this again! Do we really have to go?" I felt so bad for hi. By the time we checked in he was totally fine and being his normal happy self. 

They gave him some legos to pass time while we were waiting for the OR to be ready.

 Ready to go!

Children are crazies!

This is what happens when you tell the kids to put the camera in the car....

They may be crazy, but they are happy!