In Which Connor Sees The Kidney Doctor

Connor had an appointment with a nephrologist today; his primary care manager was concerned about the level of protein they found when they tested the little guy for a UTI back in December.  Since Connor only has one kidney and higher than normal levels of protein in urine can be a signal of reduced kidney function, she wanted to make sure he was checked out by a specialist. 

The nephrologist was extremely nice and had a great bedside manner; Connor was pretty nervous about the new doctor's office so she didn't do any poking or prodding at all.  She wasn't very worried about the protein levels from the test, but she was a little concerned that Connor's creatinine level was higher than she liked.  High creatinine levels can be another marker of kidney dysfunction.  She didn't think it was terribly urgent, but we're going to get an ultrasound done some time over the next couple of weeks, and then in about a month we'll get another round of urine and blood tests, and we'll see what comes of that.  If Connor continues to have increased levels of creatinine, we may end up needing to switch seizure medications, as the Zonegran can sometimes cause kidney issues.  Of course, the Zonegran is also the medication that stopped Connor's apneic seizures, so we're sort of hoping it won't come to that.

After we were done at the doctor's office I started trying to catch up on the errands that I haven't gotten done in the past week, like picking up Valentine's Day cards for Connor (holographic dinosaurs!) and Ellen (holographic kittens and puppies!), stopping by the library and stocking up on groceries.  We only got through the first errand though before the little guy completely lost it and started screaming in the middle of the store.  So we went home, where he promptly crashed.  Guess he's not quite up for errands yet.

He'll be back to school tomorrow for the first time in a week.  Hopefully he'll have a bit more energy then!

~Jess