The answer to our long-asked question

Yes, I know it's been a long bloggy while, and I fully intend to catch up on the last month's events when things simmer down a bit. This call out for prayer takes precedence, however...thanks for reading (you may have received this in an email from me already).


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I wanted to recap the latest with Sydney's health now that we know more:

Sydney's latest seizure was in February, along with another ER visit. At that point, she was diagnosed with a urinary tract infection...not her first. Since then, we've taken her for further testing, and she's finally been diagnosed with urinary reflux. (A good explanatory site can be found here.) This basically means the waste that usually stays south once it hits the bladder is "backwashing" all the way up to her kidneys, causing infection...thus fevers...thus seizures. So there's our answer: we have it! It only took us a year and a half to figure it out...

Sometimes this condition remedies itself, and she's been on antibiotics to ward off infection, but a pediatric urologist determined that her kidneys have already taken too much of a beating to wait it out any longer. We've scheduled surgery for Sydney for this Thursday morning, May 27th, to correct the urinary reflux and protect her kidneys from any further damage the reflux and resulting infections have caused.

The decision to ultimately move forward that aggressively was based on the results from her kidney and bladder ultrasound last Tuesday, showing that her right kidney is a bit shrunken and therefore has lost some function. Due to some additional concerns of our pediatrician, we took the additional precaution of clearing her with a cardiologist to make sure there was nothing wrong with her heart that would impede a procedure of this nature, and she has been deemed good to go. Drew's parents are coming into town to stay with us, and that will be a big help.

The thought of surgery is scary, yes, but we're relieved to finally have an answer and a solution all at once, to be getting it over with in a quick timeframe, and are eager to get her healthy once and for all...and possibly seizure-free for good! We did a hospital tour this afternoon - very non-threatening and very helpful in familiarizing Syd with where she'll be and what she can expect to see and experience. Wanted to offer some specifics so you are aware and can be praying:

• She'll be admitted at 7 a.m. to the hospital.
• Surgery begins around 8:30 a.m. and will last about 3.5 hours.
• She'll stay maybe three nights in the hospital. She might be off solid foods for a day or two.
• She'll need to lie low a bit when we bring her home, but by a week later she should be back to her normal activity level (high to very high if you know Syd at all). =)

I did some research and found a site that describes pretty accurately what our doctor has outlined to us. Thought it'd be helpful if you want to read through to get a better idea of what's going on in her little body and what this surgery will do to correct it. It's been reassuring for us to arm ourselves with more information about it!

In light of the fact that the affected child's siblings have a 33% chance of being born with this same condition, we've scheduled the same VCUG test as Syd had for Elijah to occur within the next few weeks to either rule it out or make sure we nip it in the bud early. (Any future children we have would undergo the same testing at just one month of age. We won't think about that yet...)

Please keep Sydney in your prayers on Thursday as she heads into surgery. It's already been a long week for Drew and I, and we're ready for this to all be over. We know we serve a great God who is watching over her, and we know she's going to be fine - better, in fact, than she's been her whole life, since for the first time all her darned pee will go where it's supposed to! =)

Sorry for the long post. Thanks for praying with us - we'll keep you updated.