Home from Calgary

We didn't get home until late lastnight so had to wait til this morning to send something out. We got to Calgary Monday night and headed straight to bed. It was a long trip. Tuesday morning she was hooked up to a 24 hour blood pressure monitor at the hospital and we also got a brief tour of the place (it was awesome). So that was pretty uneventful. So when we were done there decided we were going to check out the Calgary Zoo! Well, driving for me in Calgary was an experience. Thanks to construction we couldn't take the easy way to the zoo and I got lost. So lost, in fact, we ended up at the Saddledome (for you that don't know....that is the arena where the Calgary Flames play) and decided that while we were her let's see if there were tickets left for their first home pre-season game and then we would continue on to try and find the zoo. Got tickets for the game and did eventually find the zoo. The zoo was great. We loved seeing the Giraffes, the baby elephant, and the baby gorilla (pictures to come on the blog). We spent all afternoon at the zoo. She didn't start complaining about the blood pressure monitor until about 4:30 in the afternoon (it had been pumping up every 15 minutes during the day) when we had to do some readjusting. On our way to the Flames game, I made more wrong turns and ended up downtown...where we saw lots of police cars, fire trucks, and large crowds of people. What had happen was there was a bomb scare downtown....good thing didn't find this out til after the fact and was driving home after the game. This was Meredith's first NHL game. She thought it was awesome. We didn't have nosebleed seats...maybe just some mild nasal congestion. The Flames lost to the Florida Panthers 3 to 2. Meredith slept most of the way back to the hotel room, when we got there we both just collapsed! She slept through the monitor (at night it only pumped up every 30 minutes), me on the other hand, heard everytime that little machine pumped.

Wednesday morning the monitor came off. Whew! She was very happy to get that off! So once that was off it was to the mall until appointment time! We spent the morning at Market Mall checking out Toys R Us, Old Navy, and Kernels. Then it was back to the hospital for her appointment. Meredith got to see a Resident by the name of Dr. Pockett, and her supervising Physician was Dr. Midgley. She got the once over...twice! When it came time review her recent ultrasounds there was some question as to the status of her liver and pancreas...and so it was off the ultrasound...again. (this would make her third ultrasound in a month) The test took and hour and half this time and the Radiologist even came in to look! They took 88 pictures of her kidneys, liver, pancrease, gallbladder, and spleed. The good news is that she does NOT have any cysts on her liver and pancreas and her spleen is the size that it sould be. Both of her kidneys are quite enlarged (more on that in a bit) and full of teeny tiny little cysts, although, she does have some bigger ones there, too, but not TOO many. It did show that her liver and pancrease have a rough appearance...it should be smooth. What does that mean? Who knows...but we aren't going to worry about it at present. So after the ultrasound it was back upstairs to finish visiting with Dr. Midgley and Dr. Pockett. We looked at her pictures together, we chatted, we asked questions and got answers. So, yes, clinically she may have autsomal recessive polycystic kidney disease, but are we going to do a kidney and liver biopsy to make it definitive? No. As all her lab work is absolutley perfect we aren't going to worry about it. So...lab work every 3 months to make sure all is going well. I mentioned before that her kidneys are quite large. Her kidneys should weight appox. 88mg each (for her size and weight). Her right one is appox. 200mg and her left is approx. 216mg. So not only is she all heart...she's a good chunk of kidney, too!
We went over her blood pressures from the monitor and she is still quite high. Although, funny thing, her lowest pressures were during the hockey game! So we are adding another blood pressure pill to her regime. So now she gets to swallow 2 pills every morning and still get her pressure checked every morning. So once we get her blood pressure under control that will buy more time in keeping her kidneys functioning the way they should be longer.

So all in all it was a very good visit. So for now it's blood work every 3 months until her visit with Dr. Midgely again in a year, at which time she'll have another ultrasound (hopefully not for an hour and a half again) and hope things are just as good then as they are now!

Thank you for your thoughts and prayers,
Renelle and Meredith
(and family)

PS Mom, Grandma, and Dad did well with the kids while we were gone....I think they actually missed us! OH! And pictures to come of the Calgary trip and Mom and Grandma's visit.