*there's good kidneys

Good news! Will does not have kidney reflux. We spent a whole day at the hospital last week for tests to get that discovery. Will had a urinary tract infection in December and since those are rare in little boys his urologist wanted to make sure it was a fluke and not kidney reflux. He was very patient with the whole day. 

First we played in this garden in a hospital courtyard:

Trying to see the fish.

Finding a secret path.

One of the waiting room toys.

Chris and I were once in this waiting room so long that we both tried playing the game in this car.

Notice the silver pole at the top for hanging I.V. bags. They think of everything at this place.

First there was an ultrasound of his abdomen. I am sorry to say that one of the downsides of Will getting older is that he has seen enough to know that being with doctors sometimes equals pain for him. We had him lie on a bed for the ultrasound and it took him awhile to realize that the ultrasound didn't hurt. When she would start to examine a different spot he would cry again and then realize that it still didn't hurt.

The next test was not nearly as easy. His bladder was filled with dye so a video Xray could be taken of how his kidneys processed the dye. It was really uncomfortable for him but he was really good despite the circumstances. And luckily the staff was all really nice. I have discovered that appointments with offices that haven't seen Will before can be really long. Before they do anything they first have to wade through his plentiful medical records to get his history. Just pulling up his records can take awhile because there is so much information in it their computer suddenly "runs slow". And sometimes they end up calling his other doctors to ask questions. So we had some nice conversation with the Xray technicians and the observing student while the Radiologist and the Fellow (because of course he gets to be a teaching case almost every time) read over his chart.

Since December he has been on a prophylactic dose of antibiotics every day to prevent more infections. I have really not enjoyed adding that to our routine. But we are actually lucky that Will has not had very many long term medicines. Since having a constant antibiotic in your system is incredibly unnatural, we balance it by putting packets of probiotic powder in his nutrition. That seems to help and I actually like giving that to him.

His next urology surgery has been scheduled for mid-May. Wish us luck!