Indeed, time does move faster than we can often comprehend. Brenny turned 2 in June and has been doing fantastic. His birthday celebration was fantastic and presented an excellent opportunity to evaluate everything this very courageous boy has endured and to cherish the smiles and laughs he brings to us on a daily basis.
A stomach virus made the rounds through the family in early July, laying Kyle up sick for a week followed by a 6-day hospital stay for Brenny, underscoring the very fine line we walk trying to avoid dialysis and wait for transplant. The virus for Brenny was relatively minor (no fever) but severe enough to prevent him from ingesting the necessary volume to maintain his blood chemistry.
While in the hospital, he was fed intravenous fluids helping to flush out his system of the stuff his kidneys cannot. The challenge with Brenny as with any 2 year old in the hospital, is establishing an IV. He went through 5 in his first 4 days and fought every attempt.
During this stay we noticed his personality starting to evolve into one of happy, say hi and bye to his favorites and blow kisses. That is, until the IV team or phlebotomist comes around and then he earns the respect of those individuals and has become known as a, "hard stick" and a fighter to be sure. It routinely requires 3 to 4 people to hold him down during these times. As much as it breaks our heart to put him through these necessary drills it strengthens our hope and resolve that he is such a strong fighter.
Being in the hospital enabled him to undergo some tests that needed to be done. Most notably a brain MRI to evaluate the after effects from his stroke and seizures at the beginning of the year. The result is that we will continue to administer a very low dose of anti-seizure medicine as most kidney patients are susceptible and continue to observe.
Secondly, a test to determine the degree of reflux (or backing up) in his urinary tract. When he was first diagnosed with kidney disease a urinary tract infection alerted us to the underlying condition. This was due to severe reflux in both ureters, grade 5. This time when the test was performed, only one ureter had the grade 5 reflux. Definitely good news since a urinary tract infection can further damage what little kidney function he has left.
We start speech therapy to help with his food aversion in early July, since all kidney patients have this condition.
Thanks again for all your support, prayers and well wishes!!
