a picture of happy

well, i took some great pictures of bennett when we got home from the doctor's appointment, but they didnt save...which worries me a little.

BUT

the BIG news is this:

NO SURGERY NEEDED!!!

such a relief.  we arrived at the hospital this morning around 8:15am.  we had to wait on a pediatric nurse to come administer the IV (which i was FINE with - would much rather have someone used to working with babies do this...).  the iv part was definitely the hardest.  they had to wrap him up and have two people hold him down, all the while poor bennett was screaming bloody murder.  they made me (and my mom) sit in the back corner of the room so bennett wouldnt see us.  it took longer than i thought, even though the actual IV only took two seconds.  it was a chore holding my "portly" child down, they said.  he is quite solid.  and strong it appears.  stephen got there right as they were taping bennett's hand to a board to keep the IV in.  as soon as we got bennett out of the room he took his paci and blankie and cuddled for about 15 minutes while they got the other room set up for him.  he was hot, worked up, and exhausted.  and so very loving.  it was incredibly therapeutic to hold him during this time.  

we went back to the room and they again tightly wrapped bennett up in a sheet, with only his IV hand open.  he freaked out the second i had to give him up and he kept the screaming and squirming up for the first part of the test, and we needed a nurse, me, and stephen to keep him still.  after about 7 minutes or so, he calmed down and started relaxing a bit.  they had administered the mag-3 which was the compound that has a radioactive element that they were tracing.  on the screen, we saw two green masses appear, which were his kidneys (the green was the fluid).  

about half way through, they gave bennett some lasix (diuretic) through his IV.  at that point, we could see the green masses start to shrink (one of them did) and another larger green mass began to form below them.  this was his bladder.  eventually, an even larger green mass appeared beneath his bladder - which was his diaper.  the whole test took about 40 minutes total, and for those 40 minutes i was crouched over bennett, holding his legs while a nurse held his shoulders, singing things like the "abc's," "jesus loves me," and "hush little baby."  if i stopped singing or tried to straighten up for a minute, the crying began again.  he actually was incredibly good, and the nurses commented to this.  stephen and i were in there the whole time, and we are so proud of him.  

after the test was done, we took a cd of the results (pictures taken during the procedure, interpretive graphs, etc) to bennett's urologist.  after watching the test, we could tell one kidney was not draining.  when the test was over, his right kidney was gone (the green mass) but you could still see the fluid in his left kidney.  my heart sank knowing there was still something wrong, and a reason why that kidney didnt drain like the other.

however, dr terry came in to the exam room with a big "no surgery here!!!" and i literally almost fell out of my chair.  i started bombarding him with questions like "why didnt it drain?" "i saw fluid" "really, no surgery??" (like i am a doctor or something...mothers can get quite ridiculous on these things - and i have a bad history of attempted self-diagnostics).  he explained it like this:  you have a large pond and a small pond.  you drain both at the same rate.  the small one will empty sooner than the large one, but both will eventually empty.  

bennett's left kidney is just larger than his right, but both drained at the same rate and both are functioning equally.  one kidney is not working any harder than the other.  joyous words.

so where do we go from here?  in six months we will go back and have an ultrasound of his kidneys, just to take a picture again and make sure they are both growing like they should.  then probably a year or so later we will do it again.  eventually, dr terry said we will just stop and this whole thing will be done.  honestly, as much as i dislike taking my baby to a hospital and spending half a day there, it will be such a different experience knowing surgery is not in our future.

thank you to all four grandparents who were there at some point or another for moral support.  thank you everyone who took even two seconds to say a prayer for bennett.  and for us.  our hearts are full and our prayers are answered - this dark little cloud that has followed us around for the past year and a half is gone. 

and we are EXHAUSTED!!! :)

"O LORD my God, I cried out to you for help,

 and you restored my health."

Psalm 30:2