Life is Good!

Thank you to everyone who followed Keyan's BLOG and many thanks for all of your thoughts and prayers. Keyan has healed wonderfully well and is running around like he should be. This summer has been filled with swimming (something that Keyan was not able to do), bike riding and lots of fun. We cannot thank Dr. Mitchell and all of the staff at Wisconsin Children's Hospital enough.

All is fantastic!

We began Fathers Day with a wonderful breakfast followed by time spent playing together. During this time Keyan was complaining of a stomach ache which worsened as the morning went by. Thinking that it may be a sour stomach from breakfast (yes, I cooked) I gave him some gas-ex and Tylenol for the pain. Within an hour Keyan was screaming in pain and began to vomit. This lasted for about 1 1/2 hours. We called the urologist on call and he told us to take Keyan to the emergency room in Milwaukee. After 6 hours and numerous tests they found that Keyan was full of stool. They admitted and monitored him overnight. After passing much stool we were discharged, Keyan was feeling much better. We are very happy that stool was the only problem and that this situation was not more serious. Another day.

Keyan is TUBE-FREE!

We had our usual Tuesday appointment with Dr. Mitchell and he is really happy with Keyan's progress. We have stretched Keyan's bladder to about 250ml and have to catheterize every 3 hours. Dr. Mitchell removed Keyan's last remaining drain so now Keyan is officially tube-free! After the appointment we had a tube-free celebration! Keyan can now swim, ride his bike and do just about everything that he wants. We must be diligent about draining his urine every 2 1/2-3 hours so that we will not harm his new bladder. Keyan is doing a fantastic job at catheterizing but needs reminders on his timing. As always, thanks for every ones thoughts and prayers.

Keyan is Cathing!

We had our appointment with Dr. Mitchell on Tuesday and was told that Keyan is healing beautifully. He removed the AVC drain which is the drain that came from his belly button. He now us using that channel to drain his urine. He takes a 16 inch, 10 french catheter and carefully guides it through the channel beginning at his belly button down into his bladder. Once the catheter reaches the bladder the urine drains out. Keyan is doing such a remarkable job at self catheterizing and we are so proud of him. Once we are all feeling confident with cathing, irrigating (flushing saline in and out of the bladder through the catheter to remove the mucus) and once the bladder stretches a bit more, the other drain will be removed. To stretch the bladder we will drain the bladder every 2 1/2 hours rather than the original 2 hours. Our goal is to be able to go 3-4 hours between draining the bladder.
One word of advice, pre-order all supplies, do not wait until you must begin cathing. We were given enough supplies to last us for a day and a prescription for additional supplies. Unfortunately it takes 5-7 days to recieve the order...........after hours of phone calls I was able to track down 31 catheters! Today I found some more that will last us until the shipment arrives. A lesson to be learned.

Keyan is feeling much better!

A quick update, Keyan is feeling much better, it seems that the antibiotics are working! He is counting the days until Tuesday to get one drain out!

Today was going to be a good day....

Today was going to be a good day, it was Keyan's first day back at school. About mid-day the school nurse called and said that Keyan had pain. I immediately picked him up and watched the pain get progressively worse. After a call to Dr. Mitchell and being seen by our pediatrician we learned that Keyan has a kidney infection. We will try and kick it with oral antibiotics but if that doesn't work we will got to the hospital for IV antibiotics. Once again, lets all say a prayer.