Renal Scan

Today Trinity had a renal scan to check and see how her kidneys are functioning. We had an appointment with her Pediatric Urologist after the procedure (that got changed). Because it was originally going to be all day, Jason planned to just meet me at the dr after the renal scan, since his job is new and all, didn't want to upset his boss. I felt comfortable doing that, since she was going to be sedated.

Trinity and I arrived at the children's hospital radiology and I was told to call the dr's office, unfourtunately she had stuff come up in the afternoon, and it looked like we wouldn't make it there today. We were then directed to the Pediatric Surgery Center. I was very excited about seeing it, since that is where we will go for surgery. We got there and they had all kinds of toys for Trinity to be able to play with while we waited (she loved the dump truck!!). We then went into a small room and Trinity was weighed (still 17.5lbs) and measured (27 inches long). Then the fun began! She tried to take her blood pressure on her ankle! (I was laughing inside). Trintiy just wanted to take off the sleeve and play with it! So, then she tried her arm, that was a little bit more successful, but not good enough to get a read! So, didn't happen. She then put a little thing on her big toe to read her blood oxygen levels, she liked that, it made her toe red!!!

We were done in there and sent back out to wait more. We were eventually taken back to her room to get ready for the procedure. Our two nurses were great! Very nice and helpful, and very cute with Trinity. They explained the procedure to me, and started getting things ready. (at this point it was probably 10:30 am and Trinity hadn't eaten since 7pm the night before, so was a little cranky!). They had to put some numbing cream on places that were potentially the IV spot, so on each food, and one hand. We had to put a sock over the one hand, so she wouldn't stick it in her mouth, so I spent the next half hour keeping her hands apart, and her feet apart (she kept scratching them together and the tape over the cream was coming off!).

We were doing a light sedative because I knew she could not lay still for an hour. They gave it to her orally in a syringe (like she does her medicine every night). The nurse said it has a whiskey like after taste. She made a nasty face, then cried. She definitely didn't like the taste. It would take about 20 minutes to kick in. She had her own little crib hospital bed, so we laid her down, and the IV was next. The did the IV right into her little foot. She got bundled up in a warm blanket, one nurse held one leg, another held her other leg away from the one the IV would go in, and I was at her head, as she screamed at me. This is where I wish I weren't alone. I had to fight back tears. It was so hard to have her look at me, as to say, "Mommy why are you letting them hurt me". She did great, and once the IV was in, she calmed down a little. I think the sedative was starting to kick in though and she was trying to fight it (as she always tries to fight sleep!). They then did the catheter, she was not as mad about that, but defintiely let them know what she thought! At this point the sedative should have been kicking in, so they turned off all the lights, and I rocked her to sleep, she konked out almost immediately!!

The nurses then took her back to the radiology for the scan. We got there at 11:30am (appointment was at 11am, and we had been at hospital since 9:30am). I stepped out to call the dr office, to tell them we definitely wouldn't be there by 12:30 before the dr left, and also called Jason and suggested he just meet us at the hospital. I walked back in to find Trinity strapped down to the machine, sound asleep, looking so peaceful. I am so happy we sedated her, I could not have sat there for an hour of her screaming at me. The person at the computer made the mistake of telling me what I was looking at, and it worried me the next three days (more on that later). They put a radioactive solution into her IV, so they could watch it travel through her kidneys and bladder with an x-ray machine. As I looked at the screen, I could see a very green right kidney and a very green bladder, however, the left kidney was not as visible, so I knew right away that the left was not functioning at full percentage.

Jason got there with about 20 minutes left and Trinity was waking up, so we both sat and talked to her and reassured her, she was quite a trooper those last 20 minutes. Once we got back to her room in the surgical center they took her vitals, her temp was a little low, so wrapped her up in a warm blanket, and she finally got to eat!!! She took a 6oz bottle of formula like she was chugging a beer!! We finally left there a little after 1pm. The last I heard from the drs office was the dr would try to call us after 4pm, but we still haven't heard anything yet.