I Heart Ryder’s Kidneys!

I always get so nervous when it's time to take Ryder for his monthly sonograms of his kidneys. The word sonogram used to be filled with so much excitement for me, it meant I got to peak at my little guy! When I found out I had gestational diabetes, I was bummed...but knowing that I would get weekly sonograms made the news a little sweeter. Or so I thought, until we showed up for our very first sonogram to the words "So what's going on with your little guys kidneys?"...excuse me?? What do you mean? You have the wrong room doc! "Oh, I'm sorry, I was under the impression that you knew, well lets take a look and see for ourselves." Yeah, suddenly the whole sonogram thing was not so sweet. Week after week it seemed more like torture. It was an hour or longer of searching, mumbling, pointing at the screen, and medical terms that made no sense to me. Oh and of course making us sit with a genetic counselor who would spit out a bunch of statistics, implying that something major would be wrong with our son. Because "when you find one thing like this, it usually means you missed something else." My stomach is knotting up just thinking back to those last few weeks of my pregnancy. I had an hour ride home from those appointments and I would cry so hard, praying out to God to fix "it", whatever "it" was. It was so confusing, I had no clue what was even wrong! Now looking back I realize that it was hard for them to put all the pieces together because they were looking through me, through him, trying to pinpoint a blockage that was causing his bladder and kidneys to swell so much. At the last sonogram we had, I was 34 weeks pregnant, as soon as the Doctor started the sonogram I knew things had gotten worse. There was a huge black spot staring at me from the screen and I was listening to comments like "is that his bladder?! Is that a cyst?! Wait a minute, did his kidney rupture??" Oh my goodness, this is bad! They asked me to come back in two days so that they could look again and see where all of the fluid was coming from that was creating that big black spot. Those were the longest two days of my life. All I could think was "if one kidney ruptured, that means he only has ONE left, and that one's not healthy either...so what if that kidney ruptures??" and then he would kick me and I would snap out of it. Every single movement reminded me that he was okay, that "it" was in greater hands than mine or the doctor's, and at that moment I would stop worrying and start praying. The two days went by and we finally went for our very last sonogram. It was the shortest of all. The doctor looked and confirmed what he believed had happened, the left kidney had ruptured, releasing all of the backed up fluid into a capsule around the kidney, Ryder's heart rate was extremely high...it was time to get him out of there. He told me to head to Labor and Delivery, they would deliver him and then fly him to Richmond where the Pediatric Urologists and Neonatologists would be waiting to provide the medical attention he needed. Wait, back-up, you want me to what??? Me stay here and him go there...no way! I'm usually really good at following directions, but not this time. I asked if I could please go to Richmond and be delivered at the hospital that Ryder would be at. The doctor made some calls, found an OB that would deliver me and set it all up for us to head straight there - Thank you God for working that out! We had an hour ride to the hospital, we used that time to get ahold of our families and friends...all who couldn't believe that we were headed for delivery. I remember everyone asking me why I was so calm. I could hear the worry and fear in everyone's voice that I talked to on the way, and somehow I was comforting them, saying "it's fine...everything's going to be fine...he's going to be okay". I just knew, in my heart, that we were being sent to deliver for a reason. Obviously Ryder needed medical intervention that could not be done until he was taken out of me. Plus, I think I was so excited that we were finally DOING something, instead of just talking and looking week after week. The rest is history...Ryder was born and his body has done amazingly well since that day. He had a catheter for the first 2 weeks after he was born to relieve the pressure from his kidney's and start draining all of the fluid. He had a surgery at 2 weeks old to clear the blockage and has had monthly appointments with his Urologist that include blood work and sonograms.

Which brings me to my whole point of this post! Ryder had his kidney appointment today and it went wonderful! Once again the Doctor found growth in both kidneys, the dilation has gone down, and all of the levels in his blood work came back normal. We were supposed to see this Doctor every month for the first year, but Ryder's progress has been so great that he said we don't have to come back until he's 8 months old! And then again at 12 months old. At the 12 month appointment he will have a test done to see exactly how his kidney’s are functioning now.  If there is still damage at that point, he will have to get another surgery to remove the damaged parts.  But, we’ll cross that road when we get there.  For now, I’m just so thankful that we’re finally getting good news sonograms – instead of the agonizing ones just 4 short months ago. 

I’d like to give a shout out to Ryder’s kidneys…you guys are awesome!  Keep working hard, it’s for a great purpose!!