7/12/23

 I woke up and my stomach was off again. Not bad, but a little nausea. Maybe it is nerves? I have a pill for that and I took one immediately. I don’t need to deal with that on top of everything else. Our Uber arrived early and traffic was so slow across the bridge. The stop and go didn’t help my stomach. Neither did the weather. Our driver loved the heat and it was 5000 degrees in the car. I am not exaggerating (lying). But it felt 5000 degrees. I was stripping down in the back and the driver was like “your not from around here are you?” No sir, we use air conditioning because it is 2023 and we have the privilege to do so. His air was actually on but not really working well. I was practically hanging my head out of the window like Phineas used too.

Our morning was busy. We had two stops. First, children’s hospital for bloodwork at 7:30, then we walked a few blocks to the adult center for Ethan’s procedure at 8:00.

I felt incredibly nervous going to the adult center because frankly, I don’t trust anyone that doesn’t know Ethan. I feel incredibly responsible for making sure all the drugs they use are correct, won’t interfere with his current drugs and/or cause more issues down the line. I just feel like I don’t have any of the proper training to do so. It is stressful.

Plus I know that adult centers, while compassionate, are used to normal adults and not ones that have been through what Ethan has. 

Ethan was allowed to eat which he was thankful for. I gave him his very first Xanax to help with nerves. I think maybe I should have been prescribed a dose as well as his support animal ha ha.

We arrived at the children’s hospital for blood work, hopped over a few blocks to the adult center for the procedure. There was a bit of a language barrier between us and the man at the front desk. After several attempts to understand him, Ethan and I determined he said the 10 th floor. It was a very small building and only two elevators. Both elevators had these options.

Ethan and I went back to the man and after several more attempts, we decided he was saying third floor. We pushed three and at the moment decided if it wasn’t the third floor we would stop at every floor until we found the correct floor. The third floor it was.

We were so happy to see Ethan’s nephrology transplant doctor. It was nice to see a familiar face. Yeah! She then told us that we received false information and we didn’t have to schedule the stop at the children’s hospital for the bloodwork first. Grrrrrr! 😡 So Ethan got an extra poke for nothing. Now we know!

She talked him through everything and I asked if I could watch. The nurse immediately said no and that I wouldn’t want to watch this being done to my child. Ethan’s doctor was standing right there and we have a long standing positive relationship. I looked right at her and said “if I can watch my child go into cardiac arrest, watch them initiate CPR for several minutes with blood spurting out around his chest tubes with each compression, I think I can handle this.” How do you argue with that? They didn’t. I got to watch. Ethan was a freaking machine! Just sat there and withstood the pain of the lidocain like it was nothing! 

Ethan only received a local anesthesia in the form of a lidocain injection. It burns. They used a 22 g needle and gave about 8 ml of lidocain around the area with a few different injection sites. No flinching with each poke. And it was done in a tender area of the abdomen in the lower right corner.

They used an ultrasound to get a visual of the kidney and how the profusion (blood pumping in it) was. She said it looked good.

She then used a staple blade and cut through a small putter layer of the skin so that it would be less trauma poking the biopsy needle into Ethan’s kidney. Ethan lounged through it. BEAST!

The needle for the biopsy was long about 8.5 inches. It was the thickness of a phone charging cord or maybe slightly larger. It had a handle that had a button on it that was spring loaded so that they could get a swift and clean sample.With the first poke with the biopsy needle the doctor made a remark about Ethan’s “tough skin”.  The biopsy gun made an aggressive loud clicking sound.

The needle used is a hollow tube that has holes in it to collect the sample they will be testing.

The first poke yielded a collection of fat and was discarded. The second poke was successful. They collected a sample that was slightly less thick than the needle and about a inch long maybe slightly less. The third poke had the same result as the second. Then manual compression was applied for 10 minutes to help avoid bleeding.

Ethan was a rock star and managed to stay in a relaxed pose the entire time, cool as a cucumber. I was so proud of him.

He then had to lie flat for 3 hours. His nurse did let him prop up a bit which Ethan appreciated. They checked his vitals frequently and tested his blood to make sure he wasn’t bleeding internally before he left.

Complications can be bleeding as well as a blood clot blockage in the urethra. So Ethan has to be careful over the next week to make sure he doesn’t dislodge a clot.

We were then on our long way home. I turned the Howard Stern Show on as it typically has silly and funny discussions that I know Ethan and I both giggle at. It did not disappoint. It was better than the true crime murder HLN stories I made him listen to on the way there (he can put in headphones but he didn’t). 

We drove home and hit rain in Scranton that was pretty aggressive. It only lasted for about 10 minutes and then it was smooth sailing.

I fly out in the morning to a veterinary conference in Denver first thing in the morning. I have never been there. I will get to meet some of my co-workers in person. We have a booth we are working as well as I am attending some classes to satisfy my CE requirements to stay licensed.

As I lay down for bed, I have hugged both kids and said goodbye for the next week, as Paul will be taking me to the airport at the butt crack of dawn. Far before the kids would think of getting up. 

We will be getting a phone call tomorrow with results. Fingers crossed.