How Long Does This Take?

Today was scheduled to be a DMSA Renal scan. Since Presleigh's ureters had been running two way traffic, four lanes, instead of one lane/one way, she wound up with a urinary tract infection several months ago, which is what revealed the ureter issue in the first place. The concern with a UTI is kidney damage, today's scan was designed to give us a look into the kidneys to see if there's been any scarring.

The appointment was set for 9AM, which means "you need to be there between 8 and 8:15 for check in and paperwork", right? Sure. That means, to get down GA-400 to the hospital in the thick of rush hour, you're going to need to leave at 7:30, no later, or you're in for big delays around exit 5 and the Perimeter. Fortunately, Daddy knew this and Mommy is constantly on time and we made it there early. Daddy wouldn't have minded much if that meant we would be taken in any earlier... Nah, it's not like getting a table at a restaurant, Pops. Nice try.

Nice scenery - Presleigh loved the fish tank in the lobby. She wasn't overly fond of not being able to eat from 5AM until the study was done, though... especially with all of those yummy fish in the tank!!! (Well, eating sushi is Mommy's deal and swallowing live goldfish is Daddy's gig, so we figured it might have at least gotten her gastric juices trickling...) God hit our "reset" button on the gratitude meter when we met a guy carrying cupcakes in to the doctors who worked on his daughter's brain tumor. "She would have been 5 years old today." Okay, Daddy cried a bit there. Thank You, Lord for our healthy child.

Long story short, what appeared to be a 9AM appointment was a 9:30 intravenous drip of renal tagged radioactive isotope, which takes 2 hours to accumulate, so they can do a 40 to 60 minute scan. Translation: The had to pump nuke juice into our precious baby so that her kidneys would light up on the x-ray machine long enough to take a time lapse photo of them. Simpler translation: "You're not getting out of here until after 1PM."

Had either of us known we'd be there for 6 hours, we'd have put in for a shift and a set of scrubs... But, God is faithful and He is our sustainer.

Presleigh wasn't nuts about the idea of the IV going into her arm. It reminded her of the last time she was here, which was a long five days for a baby of only 7 months (at the time). Today, at nearly 11 months, she was a brave little lady as they got her IV in. Plenty of crying, but still brave. She waited out the nuke drip while Daddy fought off nightmares of some Incredible Hulk/Spiderman side effects... "Snap out of it, Daddy!!!"

Once the IV push was done, it was off to see the big, scary machine. I don't know what the heck that thing is called, but it was big and it rolled, rotated, raised, and lowered. Back to the Dr. Bruce Banner nightmares... Having never had a child sedated before, Mommy and Daddy prayed and listened simultaneously as the doctors explained that "propofol is totally safe in the hospital". Apparently, it's only lethal if taken by a 50 year old King of Pop. This was well in bounds of being called "disconcerting".

However, the Lord comforted us as they administered the sedative, which knocked her out in a matter of seconds... alright... it was supposed to take effect in 4 to 5 seconds. Presleigh fought it like Arnold Schwarzenegger in "True Lies". Moments later, she did a backflip, took out the bad guy with an Uzi, and saved the world from nuclear destruction! ("Snap out of it, Daddy!!!") 40 minutes later, all done.

Now, we have a disc with weird x-ray images on it that we get to bring to Dr. Supermackdaddy-kidney-buster in a couple weeks so that he can tell us what's next for l'il Presleigh-poo. Meantime, Mommy and Daddy are wiped-out and taking the rest of the day to make sure she's unscathed otherwise. Mommy had appointments to meet with people this afternoon, but she really prayed it over and while she really wanted to keep her appointments, she knew it was more important to be here with Pres.

Presleigh seems well, a little fussy, a teeny bit disoriented still, but we're watching her like a hawk. We're optimistic, though. We know that God is fully in control and that however we move forward, he's got our back. Daddy's got some grieving to do, since his dear Nana passed last night at about 11:30 PM after dementia and failing health ran their course. She was 91 and will be missed greatly.