Renal Ruckus

The last few days have been all about Reagan's kidneys.  Her BUN & creatinine levels continue to rise.  In fact, her numbers are at levels that normally kids would have already been put on dialysis.  But, in Reagan's case, because she is so complicated & prone to infection they are trying to hold off from dialysis for as long as they can.  From all of her other systems (cardiac, lung, etc) standpoint, she remains stable so their plan is to try to support her kidneys through this acute renal injury as best they can. As long as nothing else gets thrown in the mix hopefully, we can avoid the whole dialysis thing.  Reagan is producing urine but just not clearing all of the toxins from her body that she should.  Yesterday, her creatinine level was 4.5 and today was 4.6.  The renal dr. said once you see this trend of only going up a tenth of a point, the injury has usually reached a plateau and the levels will come down from there.  The plateau could last 3-4 days before her creatinine levels come down.  They are now checking her levels twice daily to stay ahead of it in case it were to go the way we don't want it to.  It's a day by day decision to either do dialysis or give her kidneys more time to correct themselves on their own.  He told us even if she corrects herself without the dialysis he would like for her to be followed by a nephrologist in Austin when we get back home.
She also has had a few fevers over the last few days but nothing has grown from any cultures and we are praying these don't cause us any complications as far as the kidneys go.
In other news, she is suffering from delirium.  She looks at her hands as if they're snakes and has weird looks on her face as if she's hallucinating & gets very frustrated when people invade "her space".  The attending said she's got a worse case of it due to all the drugs she was on and that it will just take time and good management of her withdrawal symptoms to help her through this.  It is totally correctable though and nothing permanent as far as cognition.  Today, in fact, she has even improved and we have gotten a few slight smiles from her- the first in over 3 weeks.  In helping her with the delirium,  Dr. Roth said we need to help her distinguish her nights from her days, so Rod & I have been trying to keep her awake during the days with various activities in hopes that she will be able to sleep at night.  We have been sitting her up in the bed and letting her watch Dora DVD's which although she doesn't smile at, she seems to enjoy watching.

We also got to take her on her first trip outside of her room today. 

We took her on a wagon ride up to the roof for a little fresh air and then circled back down through the CVICU stopping by and saying hello to some of our friends. 

We took her by baby Arden's bed and let her look at her and then Arden's brother Elliot came by and wanted to play ball with Reagan.

We got one smile out of her when we were on the roof enjoying the fresh air and talking to her about being at home and swinging in the backyard. 

Other than that, she didn't budge and let any other smiles out on the wagon ride but did seem upset when we finished and returned to her room.  We told her we'd take her on more wagon rides each day.  Needless to say, the event wiped her out.

Because Reagan had a yucky day on Saturday (our anniversary) we did not do anything as we had hoped until MiMi & PawPaw came to relieve us for night shift and brought us a Fleming's gift card as our gift.  They had come a little earlier than they normally do and surprised us with the gift card and told us to go have a nice dinner on them.  So, we walked over to the Stanford Shopping Center and had a nice steak dinner, compliments of my mom & Lonny.  Thank you guys so much for helping us escape our "reality" for an hour or two.  It was delicious!
In the morning, I will be taking Rod to the airport for him to fly back home.  He and Nolan will finish up their duties (school & work) through Thurs. and then if Reagan's stay looks like it will be extended they will be flying back out probably Sat.  It's been a nice weekend with Rod here.  Thank you, baby, for surprising me the way you did!

I know Reagan has enjoyed a little daddy time as well.  

Can't wait until we can all be together at home!

Thank you again to the Schuhmacher's for hosting Nolan for the weekend.  It appears from the pic below that he had a rockin' time.

Thanks again for helping him escape his "reality" as well!