Update 2

Update on Nate.2

Greetings all,

This is my second update on Nathaniel’s kidney ordeal (let me know if you didn’t get his first one). It has been a good couple of days. The nephrologist says that things are getting better each day. How does she know… well, here’s a little medical jargon…  Nathaniel came in on Saturday with a creatine level over 15. According to a couple of the nurses at the hospital, that’s a new record… not having seen it higher than around 9. The kidney association says that above 10 represents extreme kidney failure and leads to death.  Creatine is some kind of garbage that the kidneys take out of the blood when they work properly. Most “normal” people have a level of around .6 - 1.2. That was one reason why the nephrologist said the kidneys were shot because the levels were so high when Nate came in.  Well, Monday Nate’s level was at 8.53 and today it was at 6.94. Although still not good, at least it is going in the right direction and an indication that the kidneys are working somewhat!

Along with that, Nate came in with tremendous pain, hiccupping and vomiting most of his first night. Each day his pain subsides, and today, even after his biopsy, he says he is not experiencing any pain and had a great night’s sleep last night. He does have swollen feet and a swollen face (moon face they call it) due to his steroids but other than that things are doing fine in the pain department.

We have had some visitors come by and that has lifted our spirits and as one visitor said on facebook concerning Nate, “through it all, this kid (Nate) is still the life of the party”! We have shared lots of good laughs with all who have come by, and even a nurse said that it sounded like we were having so much fun here that if she got bored she would come back by just for some laughs. I got a rather unusual gift at a White Elephant gift exchange and brought it to the hospital. Word has gotten around on the floor about it, nurses have seen it and even the nephrologist made a special trip to Nate’s room looking for it, having heard from another doctor that saw Nate and got a good laugh from it. She says she has to get one. What was the special gift… well, have you seen Despicable Me? … it was a Flatulence Sound Effect Apparatus (better known as a Fart Gun)… any way, it has been a source of quite a few laughs, both coming from Nate’s bathroom and from trigger pullers in his room!

As for the biopsy, we will not hear results at least until Thursday. Nate did not have dialysis today but will have it tomorrow, so we assume he will be here at least another day and night… The nephrologist has not given us much more than that his kidneys are not good and we should expect that there will ultimately be a need for a replacement, but it would be nice if it was later than sooner… of course, we would accept Godly intervention on any level and I am sure we have already seen Him at work in so many ways… from the response of “the body” with meals and ice cream treats, to keeping Nate through his first day at the hospital where they were surprised he walked in under his own power.

Well, that is the latest. We continue to cherish your prayers and we know that God is making his presence known to us in many ways. We look forward to being out of the hospital and at home. We also want to trust that we will see more of what God wants us to take from this journey. God is faithful and good!

Shalom,

John