Palmer's Test Results

It's been a long couple of weeks. We had the blood drawn, with no problem, except that they had to stick her twice. Collecting the urine was a horrible experience. They gave us a bag to put on her to collect it. That didn't work, we tried for five days. Everytime we put the bag on her, she would hold it all day, all night. We would finally explode, the bag would always come off. So, we had to take her in the be catherized. We survived, the worst part is that Palmer hates being held down. The nurse told me the doctor would call me with the results later, b/c he was busy. With the way she stated it, I just new something was wrong.


The doctor called that evening. He said that everything was fine with her urnine and that almost everything was okay with her blood. He said that her kidneys are fine and her thyroid is fine. Her amino acids were a little low, that that's fine, they worry when they are too high. He said that she has acidosis of the blood. Most of you are probably like me and don't know what that is. Basically, one of the chemicals in her blood is low. The bicarbinate is low. The doctor said that it was not significantly low, but that it was low. He wanted to consult the nephrologist at LeBonheur, the children's hospital here in Memphis. They would talk and decide if everything is okay or if we need to go for further testing. My doctor said that the acidosis could be nothing or it could be something more serious. It could just be that Palmer was a little dehydrated that day or it could mean that she has RTA (Renal Tubual Acidosis). Ryan was able to talk to the doctor. Ryan isn't worried, b/c he has so much medical knowledge and knows that the levels aren't very low, so everything should be okay. However, me being Mommy, it was horrible. The fact that there could be something wrong with my baby about killed me. I've been emotionally a wreck. I'm trying to be postive, but it's hard. The doctor said he would call me once he talked to the other doctors. So here is where the waiting game began.



I talked to my doctor last Monday and hadn't heard anything by Friday, so I called the doctor's office. He called me back that afternoon and apologized that it took so long, but he hadn't heard back from the nephrologist all week. He called him that day until he got him on the phone, so he would have something to tell me. Both doctors agreed that Palmer's bicarbinate levels were low, but not significantly low, so they decided that we need to redo labs in 2 to 4 weeks to recheck and go from there. They also want to recheck her phosphorus level in her blood, b/c it was low. If this is RTA, then that would explain why she is so little. However, we might do bloodwork again and everything will be fine and that just means that she's a petite little girl with a great metabolism. Let me tell you, this girl can eat like a champ. Some nights she eats more than I do, and that's saying a lot considering I'm pregnant. So, now we get to continue the waiting game. I'm going to take Palmer to the lab on Oct. 8 and the doctor said he would read the labs on the the 13th or 14th. So we have to wait until then to get an answer. Please pray for Palmer and myself in the next few weeks. The waiting is the hardest part. I'll let everyone know once we get the results.