Wednesday, November 21, 2007

November 21 Update

It's been a long while since the last update. I can explain a few weeks of the delay, but the last 15 days were was laziness. The explainable part was that his blood chemistry results started improving - so much so that there was talk of taking him off dialysis if his 24 hour kidney function test results hit 20%.

In order to do the 24 hour test, you have to collect urine in a jug (which is kept on ice in a cooler) for a 24 hour period. Since we can't hang around school with a jug and a cooler, the test is normally done on a weekend. Each weekend following the last update, there was some collection mishap which required that we start the process over again the next week. One weekend he forgot about the collection process and went to the bathroom without the jug. One weekend he had a jug-less playdate. One weekend the cap fell off the jug and it spilled out in the driveway on the way to dialysis. We ended up completing the test three weeks ago, and his kidney function numbers came out at 10%. That's an increase from the 7% we saw in August/September, but it's short the 20% we'd need to cease dialysis. He's scheduled for another 24 hour test in late December.

The evening human growth hormone injections are going a little better. We give it to him an hour after he falls asleep. Mommy gives the shot and Daddy holds him down as necessary. He cries when he gets the shot, but generally goes back to sleep fairly quickly.

He still likes school. We're going to start some reading tutoring after the holidays, but he's very advanced in math. At home we've been reading the Star Wars books at night, and playing the new Lego Stars Wars Complete Saga for Wii.

Mommy has been very busy helping her brother close out her grandmother's probate estate and helping Daddy with some other projects. Daddy's been working and bike riding (triathlon season is over). Mommy's family is in for the Thanksgiving holiday, so Jake has time to play with his cousins.