Small victories

 **If you would like to keep up with the whole saga that is our life now, there is a link on the left sidebar that you can click (Roller Coaster Ride) and it will show you all of the posts so you don't have to wade through pictures of our kids:)**

Yesterday was a super long day filled with blood draws and boredom.

We left at 8:30am to drive to Blackfoot for Lot's kidney biopsy. It is considered an outpatient procedure, so we went up to same day surgery to get him prepped. He needs a few blood draws and an i.v. There were also some electrode things hooked to him (he let me rip those off before we left!).

He was wheeled back at 10:10 and I was told it could be anywhere for 45 minutes to 2 hours before he is out. They were going to do an ultrasound to make sure they could get to his kidneys, but had to do a CT scan because his liver was in the way. Lot has some fun lines drawn with a sharpie on his back. It was only an hour before Lot was wheeled back and I could see him. It was at that point (11:20am) that we played a seemingly never-ending game of waiting. Not gonna lie, it was the most bored we have ever been.

Lot had to stay flat for at least 4 hours to minimize the risk of hemorrhaging. He was fine with that because he was able to sleep a little bit and there is a bar in those beds that sits right below his butt when he is sitting up (found this our on Tuesday at the E.R.). The first blood draw was done around 3. It takes about 30 minutes to get the results back from that. They were checking the hemoglobin and hematocrit levels in his blood. Let me know if I am wrong, but as I understand it (which isn't much) these 2 determine the clotting factor in your blood and the number is an indication of hemorrhaging. Lot's initial number was at 37. Normal is between 40 and 50. After the 1st blood draw, Lot was at a 32. Cut to 2 boring filled hours later and another blood draw was taken. This time it came back at 31. The doctor was a little worried that it went down, so we waited around for another 2 hours to see if it would come back up.

Same day surgery closes between 5 and 6, so they spent the next hour and a half trying to find Lot a room to keep him in for observation. It took until 7 to find one. We were hoping that he would not have to stay there very long, and our prayers were answered. At 7:20, the last blood draw was taken and the hematocrit level went up to 33. Still not the best, but better than it was. We were given the option to stay, but kindly declined. The doctor did order one more blood draw to be taken this morning, but we get to go to a local lab and have that done.

We escaped at 8:30 and were on our merry way home. Now we play another kind of waiting game; waiting for the biopsy results to come back, which should be today. We are not sure if the nephrologist will call us with the results or wait until the follow-up appointment on Thursday. Lot is also scheduled for a full renal panel on Monday. They want to retest and see if his creatinin levels come down with some new blood pressure meds he is on. I gotta say, though, that these new meds are already working way better than the others. Lot's blood pressure is normal. It never got above 127 yesterday. It averaged out in the one teens. With his other stuff, it was still around 130-140.

Hopefully we can get into the orthopedist next week to check on Lot's knee. The knee that started us on this ride that we unknowingly bought tickets for.

We will never be able to express how much we appreciate everyone for their support and prayers. We haven been given things that we didn't even know we needed.

It has been a long roller coaster ride these last 3 days and I have a feeling that the ride is not quite over. I think all the loops and sudden high drops are over, but there may still be a few fast curves right around the corner. We will be on this ride the rest of our lives, but hopefully we can buy some tickets for the nice and slow love tunnel soon.