Nolan’s Tests

We take sweet Nolan to Vanderbilt tomorrow for his kidney appt at 9:00 am.  I am so thankful we’ve had a few weeks to settle in post-NICU before having to start up these appointments.  I don’t think I could have endured too many more pokes, prods, or hospital rooms the following week!  But, now that it’s here, I’m interested to find out what his little kidneys are doing.  We did these tests with Katie Beth too.  When we did them with her they were kind of an all day thing so that’s what I’m expecting.  Who knows, maybe Vanderbilt will be more efficient.

We don’t know for sure what tests they will be doing, but probably an ultrasound and hopefully a VCUG.  The ultrasound just looks at how big his kidneys are.  The VCUG test is uncomfortable for the babies and long, but it gives lots of good information.  They (from what I remember on Katie Beth’s), empty his bladder, refill his bladder (not a pleasant feeling apparently), make them hold their full bladder for a while, then let them pee it out – all while watching on a high-tech camera.  It lets them know if his kidneys are enlarged due to reflux (some of the urine going backwards) or a blockage.  That’s my understanding of it.

So, pray for his sweet little body.  Our prayer is of course that all is healed and he won’t have to have any surgery or keep taking this darn antibiotic every day for a year – Katie Beth had to.  It’s not that bad really considering the alternatives.  But, getting that pink stuff refilled every two weeks and remembering to give it to him every day for an entire year is hard for this little brain to remember!  HA!

I’ve debated whether him being induced early was necessary many times over the last seven weeks.  Especially as he is peeing fine seemingly.  The doctor assured me that we had to induce as fast as his numbers were going up and his amniotic fluid going down.  But, we certainly didn’t anticipate it causing 9 days of NICU stay or him being a little delayed on other things – nothing major at all.  He also has an umbilical hernia too as a result.  I’ve never known anyone to have those, but the doctor says they are common especially in premature babies.  I have wondered since he appears to be fine, and if his tests show all is well tomorrow if we caused him a lot of undue stress and trouble for nothing.  Not to mention fun hospital bills. 

I was thinking about this last week and was convicted though.  We – us and many of you – have been fervently praying for his little kidneys, especially before he was born.  We have prayed they would heal.  I realized that if he had come out with severe kidney problems that I would have assumed that God did not have it in His plans to answer those prayers at that time in the way we were praying – which I would have accepted completely.  So, why when he’s born with at least semi-healthy kidneys and no major problems do I doubt whether we made the right decision?  Why would I wonder, “Maybe he was just fine all along and we shouldn’t have had him induced?”  (Not that it was my decision, but did I talk the doctor into it?)  But, why wouldn’t I credit the Lord for healing him when we asked?  Why would I have assumed God hadn’t answered our prayers if he wasn’t healed, but when he arrived with less problems than we anticipated assume that maybe nothing was wrong all along?  I don’t know if you’re following this or not as I’m suffering from sleep deprivation. 

The point is, we are praising the Lord that he hasn’t had major problems thus far.  He could have arrived with major kidney complications needing immediate emergency surgery.  We praise the Lord, credit his grace and his healing power as a result of faithful prayers for the progress thus far.  Even if they find tomorrow that he needs surgery or has some complications still, the Lord has done a work in sparing us from any need for extreme intervention for these first few weeks.  We are so thankful for that, and we pray in faith that his grace and healing on little Nolan’s body continues.

I did run him in today to check the hernia and some baby acne gone wild, and he was up to 9 pounds, 9 ounces!!!  He is making such great strides weight-wise!  He’ll be a chunk before we know it!

Thanks in advance for your prayers, and I’ll keep you posted as to what information we find out.  Love yall!