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!