Today's Episode of the Tale of Presleigh Pina

Today, we got to meet with Super Doc. (For those just joining us: Dr. Smith is referred to as the Mac-Daddy of Pediatric Urology, and various other cool monikers. He's supervising Presleigh's case which began a few months ago when we discovered Presleigh had an extra ureter and that all of her ureters were, under certain circumstances, refluxing urine backward from her bladder to her kidneys)

Back to today's episode:
Dr. Smith is so chill and factual, he just kind of puts you at ease by talking in multi-syllabic medical terms that roll so easily off his tongue that you'd swear he's ordering breakfast...

Long story short, we got a look at Presleigh's "films" - the images from her recent kidney scan. It shows there is some scar tissue in one kidney from the UTI she had, but the short term effects of this only mean potential for more UTI's in the future and long term only means she could be at a higher risk for high blood pressure. (We'll be watching that in her diet anyway, since there's some kind of blood pressure madness on both Mommy and Daddy's sides of the fam.)

As far as surgery goes, we don't have much more to go on and won't until about March. The plan then is to do another VCUG (X-ray of the bladder, kidneys, and ureters) to see if Presleigh's body's growth has outpaced that of her ureters and the grade 5 reflux has come down to a grade 3 or so. In either case, Dr. Chillax is pretty confident surgery will be required. We're simply praying that God does a "what the heck?!" on her and the VCUG comes back "mysteriously perfect"...

For now, it's sticking to the regular low-dose antibiotics daily and just being a kid. She's running all around the apartment these days, chewing on everything she can with her 6 proud teeth, and as you see in this photo, inspecting the Dr.'s medical equipment for quality assurance. Who knows, with Mommy's nursing background and Daddy's sales background, perhaps she'll be a medical device saleswoman when she grows up...

Prayer Plan: First, thank all of you for your constant prayer, we've felt it. We're strong in the Lord and confident in the people He's assembled around her.
The best prayers for Presleigh are for miraculous restructuring of her ureters that only God can induce.

Pray that she stays as healthy as she is until the next VCUG and that the scan comes back showing no reflux at all.

Pray that Mommy and Daddy continue to stay plugged in to Jesus on a moment to moment basis so they don't get caught up in worry or any other useless misdirection of energy.

Pray for Presleigh's big sister, Brianna, as she spends the school year half a continent away with her biological Dad in Washington state.

Keep our dear Debbie Russell in your prayers as well while the Lord escorts her through her chemotherapy and kicks her cancer in the Jimmy.