Reflux

I have been granted the privilege of working a couple of days from home so that I can care for our newborn. He was diagnosed with Stage 4 Kidney "Renal" Reflux at 5 weeks old and now we want to be super careful. It began with a high fever and after many grueling tests, we found out that he had a Urinary Tract Infection, Kidney Infection and this Stage 4 (out of 5) Reflux. We were shocked. How do you prepare yourself for this as a parent? Anyway, after we had our week stay at the hospital, we have since found out that this is a common ailment among young children. I have talked with several friends and they have a child that has or had reflux or know someone that did. I just find it very interesting that you really don't hear about these things until it happens to you. Maybe, the truth is that you don't deeply care or concern yourself with it until it happens to you. As a mother, I just feel horrible that he has had to endure all of these awful tests to only find out that we have to wait another year to see if his kidney will gain functionality. As a result of all of these tests, I have found out that a normal kidney functions at 50% on each side. In Holden's case, it is 25% on one side and 75% on the other. If you lose a kidney, then the other will compensate by doing 100% of the work. But the other part that is really interesting is that you only need 1/2 of a kidney to survive without dialysis. As it stands now, if any tragic thing happened where Holden lost his 'good' kidney, then he could survive on the other as it is today. We have to wait a year to find out if the kidney will continue to function at 25% or lose additional functionality. At about 10% functionality, then they remove the kidney. YIKES! We have to be extremely careful that he doesn't get any more UTI's or Kidney infections over the next year. He will continue his profalactic dose of antibiotics until such time that we are told he can discontinue. In all of this, I also find out that UTI's are very common in newborns and infants and will decline at 6 mos and again at a year. This is all very interesting to me. I just pray for Holden that he is able to live a normal life---hopefully with both kidneys.

Feeling Tired

Maybe it is just me, but balancing life can be tiring. I don't know how many other woman out there reading these blogs are working moms, but it is quite the challenge. I have never felt exhaustion like that I have felt since Holden was born. It seems as though if not being a new mom is tiring enough, add the intensity of balancing life and work on top of it. It seems as though some days it is not ever going to all get done. Somehow, we manage it, but it isn't without a lot of effort. The irony of all of this is that this is something that my husband and I only dreamed of for many years. Now that it is a reality, it is so much harder and rewarding than one could ever imagine. I believe that all of the hard work is worth it, but who could have ever told you that it would be so exhausting. Just trying to figure out the best way to balance it all and still enjoy my family.