Medical Update 8/25/09 - Part 3

So after the Uyrodynamic study last week, the wife and I had a number of things to discuss, go over and decide.

The Nurse Practitioner said that it will be medically necessary to cath Annabelle eventually but that it was not medically necessary now – just recommended.

When you start cathing, the doctors want to you cath every 3-4 hours. This isn’t like trying to decide if you should give your child baby aspirin or cough medicine. We are talking about making a significant and on-going lifestyle change for our little family. To compound the decision-making process, the NP had not reviewed the ultrasound that we had just two weeks prior and was relying on an ultrasound from February.

The wife and I decided to hold off until we could get more information.

This past Tuesday, we met with the Urologist who had reviewed both the most recent ultrasound and the results of the study. He had a slightly different interpretation of the results. According to the doc, Annabelle’s situation is not that she does not fully contract her bladder but that her bladder is just undersized. After talking through some things, the doc said that he “thinks” Annie will need to be cathed around 4-5 years of age. To my ears, he sort of leaned on that word “think” and the message I got was that there may be the possibly that Annabelle can be potty trained but that he doubts it.

As far as I am concerned, that is reason enough to celebrate!

We are people of faith and we believe that God heals. That being said, when we have a headache, we don’t pray about it – we reach for the pain killers. So what to do in this situation? Start cathing because the doc thinks it will be inevitable or hold off and give God and nature some elbow room to work wonders?

The doc assured us that he would continue to monitor Annabelle closely and if and when she needs to be cathed, we will all know it. Our next check up is in 6 months.

So, for now, no cathing. We will review again in 6 months.

And thus it ends.

It has been 18 months of panic / survival mode with a major exam, procedure or hurdle always looming on the horizon and this Urodynamic Study was the last of them. I am officially declaring this medical marathon over. Where’s my free finish-line beer?! Where's my shiny metallic blanket that they are supposed to wrap around you?!

Some stats just for kicks - in the past 12 months there have been:

1 spinal surgery
3 brain surgeries
11 days spent in intensive care

2 nights spent in the general ward of the Hospital
2 feet surgeries
108 doctor's appointments at last count (though the calendar seems to have deleted whole swaths of appointments so I would peg it more like 125 or so)

Sure, we may have to lace up for another medical marathon some day. And we may have to get out and do a 5k or 10k from time to time as well. BUT THIS ONE IS OVER. And today, that is all that counts.






Thank you for your continued prayers and support!