:(

Bummer... It seems as though our little guy (Archer) has a bunch of those evil little stones trying to work their way out. He came home early from school on Thursday because he was in pain. He stayed home Friday and cried or slept most of the day because of pain. When they hurt, he feels like he needs to throw up so that's not fun either. He's a tough little guy, but this is starting to wear him out. It's the saddest thing to hear him cry / whine because its hurting him... We're hoping that with the combination of pain medication and anti-nausea medicine, that he can be fine this weekend...

Prayers are welcome. Loves, Us.

Pictures of a stone...

I don't want to gross you out, but I thought I would show you what Archer's stones look like. He passed this beauty today. It's probably the one that was causing his pain on Saturday.

Today he came home from school and went to the bathroom. Jeremiah said that Archer started yelling for him to 'come here!' so Jeremiah went in to check on him. Archer said that he stopped peeing because the rock got stuck! (We told him that he needs to tell us if it really hurts to pee or if he stops peeing but he still needs to go because we didn't want it to cause an infection!)

So Jeremiah grabbed the tweezers and the sterile jar that the hospital gave us and helped get Archer's stone out... Jeremiah said part of it broke off when he was removing it but Archer was able to pee out the rest... (I know, this is probably really gross to you, but) we measured this little beauty and it's 1 cm (10 millimeters!) long and 5 millimeters wide! That's a BIG stone - especially for such a little guy! I took a picture of it next to my fingernail so you could tell about how big it is... (I mean, I was interested in what they looked like and thought maybe you would be too!)

It's almost as big as my pinky finger nail!

Good news? It was passed with no pain! The pain seems to come a few days before for him...

Stone Results and an Award

Well, the doctor called us towards the end of last week to inform us of the type of Kidney Stones that our little guy (Archer) has... It is...

Cystine Stones. These are NOT the most common type (which I TOTALLY knew it wouldn't be!) Actually, this kind accounts for less than 3% of kidney stones. Of course, after the doctor called, I looked up information on this type to find out what I could about them. Below in BLUE is the most helpful info I've found:

Cystinuria is a condition passed down through families in which stones form in the kidney, ureter, and bladder.

Cystinuria is an autosomal recessive disorder, so you must inherit the faulty gene from both parents in order to have symptoms.

Cystinuria is caused by too much of an amino acid called cystine in the urine. After entering the kidneys, most cystine normally dissolves and goes back into the bloodstream. But people with cystinuria have a genetic defect that interferes with this process. As a result, cystine builds up in the urine and forms crystals or stones, which may get stuck in the kidneys, ureters, or bladder.

(BAD NEWS) Cystinuria is a chronic, lifelong condition. Stones commonly return.
(GOOD NEWS) However, the condition rarely results in kidney failure, and it does not affect other organs.

(info found at: https://health.google.com/health/ref/Cystinuria)

So yeah, it's a bummer deal because, not only is it Jeremiah and my fault (darn genetics!), but it's a life time thing. But it's good that we know what it is and what causes it. We will be meeting with a Nephrologist (kidney doctor) in a couple of weeks. And for now, he has had one more painful day (which most likely means another stone is on it's way out soon) but it wasn't as bad this time because we gave him the pain medicine when he starting complaining that he hurt...

So, ready for some happy news?

That cute, little guy is Archer at the school assembly last Wednesday. We got a call on Tuesday from his school saying that Archer was going to receive an award and they'd love it if we could come. So, because I have a great boss, I was able to take a long lunch and go see Archer receive an award for "Being Kind" to others. He was really excited to go up in front of the school and even more excited when he noticed that Jeremiah, Robyn and I were in the back taking his picture and giving him thumbs up. Unfortunately, we were far away and the camera's lighting wasn't ideal, so the picture isn't great. Because he is great at "Being Kind", they gave him a gift certificate for a free kids meal at both Wingers and Ruby River Steak House! But I think he was most excited about his "Being Kind" certificate. :)

Archer really is a strong, kind and good little guy and we love him a lot! We'll keep you updated as anything new happens.

Brown Pee Drama, Part 2. Kidney Stones.

Darn that brown pee...
Friday night we went to bed not knowing what was wrong with Archer and why he was peeing blood... By Saturday night, we knew.

SATURDAY...

Archer woke up at about 4:45am on Saturday throwing up and crying because his tummy hurt. Jeremiah was convinced that he probably caught a flu bug from one of his many trips to the hospital / clinic. I was worried because the doctor had said "as long as he's not throwing up or complaining of pain, I'm not as worried". And now, he was throwing up and in pain. I stayed up with the poor little guy and watched the same Thomas the Train video about 5 times in a row. He was throwing up about every 15-20 minutes and trying to sleep in between, but his tummy really hurt.

At just after 6:15am, I called Dr. Dave (whom I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE!!!) to see if he thinks we should go to the hospital. Of course, I had to leave a message because it's a Saturday and it's early in the morning and I wasn't really expecting a call back until later that day. At 6:30am, Dr. Dave called me back (see why I love him?) to tell me that he would recommend we go to an ER or Urgent Care soon because it was most likely related to the blood in the urine. Jeremiah wanted to go to the Urgent Care because it would be cheaper. It opened at 8am and luckily Archer finally passed out for longer than a few minutes at 7am. He slept til about 8am, so he got dressed and they headed out to the Urgent care at about 8:30am.

At 9:15am, Jeremiah called to inform me that he was heading to the ER at UVRMC because the Urgent Care thought it might be appendicitis. I called our upstairs neighbor to ask if she could keep an eye on Tanion and Robyn so I could go to the hospital too. She agreed and by 10am, I was at the hospital with Jeremiah and Archer (parked by the very same Life Flight that took Robynson to Primary Children's).

We didn't want to worry our family until we knew what was wrong, so we just hung out at the hospital while Archer cried because his tummy hurt and he was hungry. They had already put in an IV to give him fluids (he was dehydrated from throwing up all morning) and so that it would be easier to administer everything else. The checked him out and right before he went back for an ultrasound, they gave him morphine for the pain and Zofran for the nausea. He was definitely drugged. He quit crying and was very sleepy... They couldn't see the problem on the ultrasound, but thought it might be kidney stones. SO, they did a few X-rays. Couldn't see anything on the X-rays but were pretty sure that's what it was, so they asked to do a CAT (CT) Scan. We agreed and off he was wheeled again.

SIDENOTE: Archer was SO big and SO brave for all of it. Jeremiah said that when they put in the IV that they brought in 3 nurses to hold him down. Jeremiah told them that he's been pretty good about it and if they will just let him hold Archer, that he'll do just fine. And guess what? He was. He held out his arm and Jeremiah held his hand and Archer watched as they put the IV needle in. No crying, no pulling away. NOTHING. Kinda sad because he was getting used to getting poked, but VERY brave of my little guy. (I mean, I was kinda freaking out that I had to park next to Life Flight and had to walk through the halls they walked us through to take Robyn to Life Flight.) Okay, back to the story.

Only 1 parent could stay in the room for the CT, so I let Jeremiah (that stuff fascinates him and scares the beegeebers out of me). Jeremiah said Archer was shaking a little because he was cold and scared (ever notice how cold those rooms are?) but that he was really brave again. Then they wheeled him back to his ER room for more waiting. We finally decided we should let our parents know that they thought it was Kidney Stones. Of course, our parents were just as worried.

After waiting FOREVER, the doctor came in to confirm it was, indeed, a Kidney Stone that was causing all the pain and drama for our little guy. He gave us some "what to do's" and a prescription for anti-nausea medicine and pain medicine and sent us on our way. Archer tried to take his IV out himself, he was so ready to go. He was walking out the door to go home while I was getting instructions from the doctor on using the "stone catching strainer" and medicines and everything else. :)

We came home to my mom and Jeremiah's mom there with the kids. They came to check on Archer and help out with the other kids. Both Grandma's were willing to take on the other 2 so we could focus on Archer - in case we needed to go back to the hospital (THANK YOU!). Archer ended up taking more pain meds and going to bed until about 9pm when he woke up and demanded the Taco Time he was promised for being so brave. :) (Kid after my own heart, right there!) We gave him his Taco Time and he stayed up playing with his trains and watching Thomas movies until around 3:30am when he finally passed out again.

Also, Jeremiah canceled our appointment with the Nephrologist (kidney doctor) because the ER doctor didn't think it would be necessary since we knew what was causing the problems now. He said that we needed to see a Urologist instead!

SUNDAY

Archer woke up at about 7am on Sunday and wanted to eat and play video games with Jeremiah. He didn't ask for pain meds or anything until after lunch time! He was his normal little self, but would pause every once in a while because his tummy hurt a little bit. He thought it was funny he had to pee through a strainer (to catch the stone if it passed). That afternoon we headed to Heber to pick up Tanion and Robyn and visit for a second with our families. Archer got a little more pain meds at dinner time, but really seemed fine! He did go to bed early, but I think that's because he was up half the night the night before!

MONDAY

We decided to keep Archer home from school, even though he was acting just fine. We weren't sure how to ask a Kindergarten teacher to make sure he used a strainer to pee and to let us know if he needed pain meds. Plus, we wanted to monitor him a little more. I had to go to work, but Jeremiah just kind of let Archer have his way. Archer only took pain medicine twice during the day (once at 11:30pm the night before and once around lunch time). The little guy built 3 different train tracks in the front room, requested ice cream for lunch and had a 'dinosaur dig' in his room. Yeah, he seemed pretty fine. Our friends the Bagley family stopped by to see how he was doing and he had fun playing with his friends. He requested an extra cup of water for bed and a puke pan just in case. Jeremiah had scheduled an appointment with the Pediatric Urologist at Primary Children's, as per the ER doctor's request, for Tuesday morning.

TUESDAY (today!)

Since Jeremiah had a job interview at the same time as Archer's doctor's appointment, my mom and I took Archer to Primary Children's. When we got to the hospital, Archer really had to pee, so we asked the Receptionist in the Urology Department if they had a pee strainer and a bathroom he could use. Glad we did because he passed part of the stone!!! Since he passed part of the stone while we were at the doctor's office, we could put it in the collection cup and have the labs done on it (and not have to drive back to Salt Lake to do it later!) and find out what is causing those darn things... The Urologist also said that when looking at the CT Scan results, he saw that there were SEVERAL stones in Archer's kidneys and the one that was on it's way out. He didn't think that Archer passed the entire stone (or mass) in his office, and that there was probably more on it's way soon.

After dropping off the passed stones at the lab, Archer went pee again. He sighed and said "Oh no, Not Again" because he was, again, peeing blood. (We couldn't see the blood Friday - Monday.) This could mean he's got more stones or pain on the way. But, the good news is that he hasn't had pain medicine AT ALL today and that he didn't hurt when they passed today. (He passed more today when we got home but we no longer have to collect them since we have a sample at the lab.)

SO, Archer has SEVERAL Kidney Stones. Hopefully soon we'll find out what is causing the little buggers so that we can change his diet to avoid getting more of them. Also, he'll have to have follow up appointments about every 6 months until there is no more sign of them... Which might be soon and might be never.

We thank you all for your love and thoughts and support. Archer thinks it's funny every time I tell him that someone says they love him or to give him a hug. :) I'll try to keep this updated as new things arise, but for now, know that he's doing ok!

Loves!

The Brown Pee Drama.

(Archer with a dog he named Dobby that he really wanted us to take home with us)

So I decided we'd start the new year off right - with health checkups and dental appointments. You know, make sure we are all healthy and such. Good mom thing, right? Plus, the kids were over due for Well Child checkups (since they didn't get them this last year when they should have) and it's always good to go to the dentist. (Still haven't made it to the dentist, by the way. That will be postponed until a little later, I'm afraid.)

So on Tuesday (Jan. 4) we took the kids to our favorite doctor, Dr. Dave in Heber City. He's known the kids since they were born and I love how great he is with them. And how well he understands that I have WILD children. All 3 kids get checkups and none need shots (cuz Archer got his Kindergarten ones right before he started Kindergarten down here). No problems, we head home. No big deal. Co-pays for 3 kids, $75. New medication for DarTanion $140...

Wednesday (Jan. 5) morning, Archer is laughing and tells Jeremiah to come look at his pee. Yes, his pee. He thinks he's pretty cool because he has changed his pee color to brown. Doesn't know how, but his pee is brown and he's awesome because of it. Jeremiah's a little worried (and not the basket case I would be!) but decides to see how it goes the rest of the day. He quizzes Archer on if he ate something funny in the last few days, trying to see if something food-wise would make his pee change color. Nope. Nothing. And the kid pees different shades of brown all day. I find out about it around bedtime when Archer says his pee isn't as brown anymore and I laugh... Jeremiah informs me that it has been brown all day...

Thursday Morning I go to work again but tell Jeremiah to get Archer in for a doctor appointment as soon as possible. I talk to my boss and he's great about it and tells me I can go home and take care of him or do whatever. Because Archer isn't experiencing ANY kind of pain / fever / anything else, I stay at work til the appointment, go with Miah to that and come back to work after. Archer stayed home from school so Jeremiah could monitor his pee more. Archer is acting COMPLETELY like his little self. Bouncing off the walls, no issues at all. He got poked and prodded and labs done (both blood and urine) at his appointment. Archer thought it was awesome he got to pee in a cup and keeps asking to do it again.

Friday: Results came back today: They have NO idea why but he has "large amounts of blood and protein in his urine"... Super! Jeremiah takes Archer back for blood pressure and labs. Archer was awesome and didn't even cry when they took blood today. And he was all sorts of upset when he didn't get to pee in the cup again. Those blood results came back quickly. Still more normal blood results. Still no idea what's wrong.

SO... On Monday, we have an appointment with a Pediatric Nephrologist (Kidney Doctor) to see if we can find out what's wrong with Archer. I'm just glad he's acting as normal as he ever was and that he doesn't seem to be in any pain. I'm hoping that means he had a little infection and he's on the mend. Or that it's something that he takes some antibiotic for a few days and he's healed... Nothing serious. That's our hopes...

SO, I'll keep you updated on our latest family drama!
Thanks in advance for the love and prayers!