An Official Goodbye!

Owen will officially be saying goodbye to dialysis tomorrow afternoon.

He is having surgery to remove the PD Catheter that was used for his dialysis therapies. The surgery is fairly minor, and generally outpatient. He will also be having the stint in his bladder removed as well. (This was placed during transplant to keep the connection to the bladder and new ureter open while it healed.) So after tomorrow, we are officially free from dialysis! wooohoooo!!

Our nephrologists have also decided to biopsy his new kidney. Don't freak out. :) Everything is fine. :) Shortly after transplant we had a difficult time keeping Owen's levels of rejection medication in the recommended range. The range they preferred was 10-15, and for some reason, Owen remained steady around 8. He is on quite a hefty dose for his size, so the doctors would like to do a biopsy to see exactly how everything is going on in there. Long term use of the current rejection medication can cause kidney damage. (We're talking years, here.) The plan is to switch to a different rejection med in about 6 months. His doctors have kept his steroid dose a bit higher to compensate for the lower rejection levels. However, he is now far enough into post transplant that his rejection levels are expected to be in the 7-10 range, so he's perfect-of course! :)

Owen's creatnine (blood level we look at to measure how his kidney is doing.) has been rising a bit. Now, his kidney was in such crazy overdrive at the beginning that his numbers were low, very low. In fact, we had already had conversations about how it was inevitable that his creatnine would rise, and how difficult it would be to watch it....well that's where we are now. Our nephrologist told us from the beginning of transplant that he felt he would level out somewhere around .3 (he started at .14) and that's where he currently is. So, no one is worried things are going haywire, it just so happens Owen will already be sedated and it's a good opportunity to do a biopsy and make sure we are giving the appropriate dosages for his medications.

We would appreciate your thoughts and prayers tomorrow, as sending your baby back for surgery, no matter how long it may last is never, ever easy. His surgery is scheduled for 3pm and shouldn't take longer than 2 hours. We will be staying the night, as they like to monitor patients for at least 10 hours after a biopsy, so we will just camp out in our lovely hospital beds. :)

In other news, Owen has completely turned into a new kid. And by that I mean a loud, babbling, moving, speed crawling, nap-boycotting, sticky, dirty, mischievous boy! And you know what? I love it! He is literally getting into everything he can get his hands on and is getting stronger by the day. The poor kid has carpet burn on the tops of his feet from crawling so fast a furious through the house!

Owen has also been working on his "beach babe" status for when we make our move to Florida. He is loving splashing in his pool and is working on getting a great tan! (Please, don't worry...the child is doused in sunscreen, his parents aren't exactly the darkest people around!) He is getting a little tan, though and his curls are getting lighter by the day! He will be breaking girls' hearts before we know it! ;)

Thank you for your support and prayers, especially tomorrow. We will update after surgery and will, by the grace of God, report a beautiful, healthy kidney, just as we have prayed for!