Natalie was admitted to the hospital last night with gallstones. The sonogram showed a 7mm gallstone in the bile duct, plus many other stones, so Lord willing, this is what has been causing her chest pain the past couple days.

This fits all the symptoms, though it’s been on her left side, while usually gallbladder symptoms are on the right side. But at this point, all heart tests have come back negative and her pain seems to be settling under her sternum area — not as high in her chest as it was yesterday.

The surgeon will have final say in whether she should have surgery today or not, so please pray for the doctors to consider her case carefully and to have wisdom. Please also pray for our family to have peace and that we will all entrust Natalie’s life and health to our faithful Creator.

Here’s an update Natalie wrote last night explaining Abigail’s kidney condition and the expected treatment...

We are encouraged because it appears at this point that most of Abigail’s kidney will be able to be saved. This morning we left the house just after 8:00 am. Stephen and the kids dropped Abby & me off to check in at the Loma Linda Hospital at 9:30. They went to the park, did a couple errands/explored until we were done.

Abby’s appt. was at 10:00 and we were expecting to be done no earlier than Noon, but were done by 11:30 — no waiting — YIPEE!! 🙂 They inserted a catheter for the duration of the test. That went so smooth — hardly a wince this time! Then the IV. Finding a vein is not such an easy task on a 5-month-old. They tried and failed once and switched limbs and were successful in her right arm. (Same thing happened in the ER.)

Then, as she lay on the table, she was wrapped up like an Indian papoose — on a body board with the heavy x-ray-apron-material enclosing her. She could wiggle her toes and move her head but that was it for an hour. But as you know, God has given us a content baby. I read to her, played with her, held toys to her mouth to chew on, sang to her, fed her, etc.

There were a couple times when she wanted to grab at something early on and, when she realized she couldn’t, she started to get fussy. As soon as I distracted her, though, she was happy again. In fact, at one point she was nearly ready to fall asleep with the pacifier in her mouth, when she decided she didn’t want to sleep. So she shook her head left…right…left… in a very playful mood & and giant grin/giggle. It was neat to see how she could be playful even without her arms! So cute!

After lunch, at 2:15 we arrived at the doctor office to go over the test results. He was able to pull off the video onto his own computer and see the test results for himself, even though there was not a written report after such a short turn-around. Our pediatric urologist is semi-retired and no longer performs surgeries. He said the likely doctor to perform the surgery was once his own student and is now his boss — and he’s really good, too. He probably performs 6 of these a month because this is a fairly common problem. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

So first he showed us the images and talked through them with us. There is a definite blockage in the right kidney, but it IS draining — slowly. He explained that, in the womb, the kidneys and the bladder are formed. Next the ureters grow up from the bladder and connect to the kidneys. In Abby’s case, the right kidney formed well, but the ureter did not meet up with the kidney properly. This is the reason for the blockage. It isn’t a complete blockage, as we saw today — it drains very slowly. From what I observed during the test, it appeared to my untrained eyes that the right is about double the size of the left. The technician agreed that it seemed to be at least half-again the size it should be.

So, what’s to be done? As I said, the ball is just starting to roll today, heading toward surgery. The doctor explained the procedure while drawing a picture. Let’s see what I can do with words. Imagine a balloon with a string dangling down. The balloon being the kidney, the string the ureter. (Obviously not perfect because surgery on a balloon would pop it. Not so, the kidney.) So imagine this unpoppable balloon gets cut across an inch above the knot and an inch down the string. That part is removed. Then the string is reattached to the new base of the balloon. After a little time to heal up again, the balloon is as good as new. A little balloon lost, but not much. That is probably a great injustice to the doctor’s explanation, but I hope it helps.

He said that Abigail is not in a critical condition, but he also doesn’t think we should wait 6 months, either. The danger of not operating is that her kidney will continue to deteriorate as well as fill up. If she were to fall hard sometime (down the road, if we waited) there’s even a chance that she could pop the kidney, like a water balloon. Which would very quickly lead to a dangerous situation. Again, he’s okay waiting a little while, she’s not at that point, yet. And he said again, several times now, how good it was for us to find this out ahead of time, before any serious problems arise! Praise the Lord!!

During the surgery, there will be an extra tube (like a teeny, tiny IV) inserted to the sutured area, in case urine tried to seep out past the stitches. This would be kind of like a catheter in that it will flow directly into a diaper that she’ll “wear” on her side. And a second tube that will have little pin-prick holes in the tube allowing the urine to pass through within the kidney itself. The reason for this second tube is to help relieve the pressure on the healing kidney. It seems that when he started, 35 years ago, they didn’t make a tube small enough and so pressure would build up in the kidney as it was healing and actually pop the stitches. He says that rarely happens now. The tube will be stitched in so it is difficult for her to pull it out (but kids are quick, he warned us with a smile — so watch out for fast hands!). About a week after the surgery we will follow up and the tubes will be removed. Super-easy removal, just like removing an IV. Once the stitches are removed, the tube slides right out without a problem.

She’ll need to be in the hospital the day of her surgery and overnight, then should be released the next day with little pain and able to be cared for normally (except for changing bandages as needed). There shouldn’t be any problem carrying her or anything. Such good news!

When will this take place? The doctor filled out the necessary form today. It will be sent in to our insurance for approval. Then the gal who schedules surgeries will work on setting up a tentative date. We should hear from her in two weeks or so. If, for some unlikely reason, we don’t hear we are to call her. But she should be calling us in a few weeks. It sounds like we are likely to have the surgery date scheduled two to four weeks from when we get the call. So perhaps as early as 4-6 weeks from now we’ll be down at Loma Linda in surgery. And 4-6 weeks from now Abigail will be on her way to being a healthy little girl. 🙂 Praise the Lord!

We’ll let you know more once we know more. Thanks to all of you for your love and prayers!

Natalie & Stephen

“In the day of prosperity be joyful, but in the day of adversity, consider:
God has made the one as well as the other”
(Ecclesiastes 7:14)

In this life under the sun, God is teaching us that He is the sovereign ruler who gives both blessing and suffering.

Abigail is spending her five-month-old birthday in the hospital today. She has been undergoing tests since Friday, and Natalie has been staying with her. The night nurse briefly saw some purple in Abby’s leg on both Friday and Saturday night, and agreed that it looks abnormal. The pediatric doctor and original ER triage nurse also said they may have heard a faint heart murmur through the stethoscope, but it’s really hard to tell.

So far, the pulse & oxygen meter, her blood pressure, blood sample, urine, x-ray, and EKG have all come back normal. Perhaps today or tomorrow we’ll hear back from the cardiologist about her echocardiogram (ultrasound) results. She is also undergoing a pneumagram test which will monitor her breathing, heart, etc. for 15 hours, so Lord willing it will show what is going on.

Natalie is very thankful to know it’s not just “in her head,” but that a few medical professionals have confirmed they see something, though we’re still not sure what. Looks like Natalie and Abigail may have to stay through tomorrow at least.

Please pray that God will give us grace and peace through this trial, and that doctors will see something definitive. We’re thankful tests are coming back negative so far and that some problems are being eliminated, but we just hope they don’t discharge her without getting to the bottom of this. The color change is subtle and elusive, but something is obviously going on and we’d like to know what.

Over the past few weeks, we’ve noticed our five-month old Abigail’s skin sometimes turning purple/grayish instead of a healthy pink. It’s been especially in her legs, and now it seems to be worsening. After holding her just a brief time, her legs darken as though her circulation is being restricted.

Natalie took Abby to the doctor last week and they didn’t see anything, but took her again this afternoon, and after a couple tests he was able to see she has “delayed capillary refill” (her blood capillaries are not refilling at the normal rate).

She’s not in any immediate danger that we know of, but we are instructed to take her to the ER immediately if she develops trouble breathing or her skin begins to turn blue (this has happened twice in the past 3 weeks when we fed her and apparently held her in one position for too long). Otherwise, we will just try not to cut off her circulation, and will take her to the cardiologist just as soon as they can fit her in.

This appears to be unrelated to the problems with her right kidney, which is still being tested for hydronephrosis. As most of you know, Dylan had a major heart defect which required open-heart surgery when he was 2, so we’re on somewhat familiar territory here. But this is the first evidence that Abigail has a heart condition.

We’re very grateful for your prayers, and that God is in control of all this. We’re also thankful that the doctor confirmed Natalie’s suspicions about a vascular problem, and that we are now on the fast track to see the cardiologist.

Abiding in Christ,
Stephen & Natalie

Natalie had a follow up appointment with her doctor this morning, but we really don’t have much  to report. The lab reports are not back yet. The doctor briefly checked Natalie, noticed a little bleeding, and said to come back in another week.

The doctor still seems optimistic that the uterine lining is just weak/thin, and that it will eventually heal on its own. The area he scraped six weeks ago is probably still very tender, and needs more time to heal. We envision it kind of like a scab, that needs to heal, and when picked, starts to bleed again. He says it’s possible the bleeding she had last weekend was even agitated by her menstrual cycle (this is only speculation).

The doctor who saw Natalie today is the one who delivered the baby and did the D&C six weeks ago. He is not the same one who was on call over the weekend and did Natalie’s D&C last Saturday (that was his partner practitioner; they form a sort of tag-team and alternate shifts). Today, Natalie’s doctor said there were two options of how last weekend could have been handled.

1. The first option was to perform a D&C and scrape/clean out the uterus again. This solved the immediate bleeding problem, but may have opened that “scab” up again and delayed healing. This is obviously the route the on-call doctor took in the ER last Saturday. Today, the doctor said that if Natalie were not his normal patient, and without knowing her history, he would have done the same thing. 
2. However, the second option would have been to try to control the bleeding in the hospital with more Methergen and Pitocin, helping the uterus push out remaining tissue, constricting the blood vessels, and permitting the “scab” to continue healing. The doctor said this is what he would have done if he was the one on call last weekend.

We’re thankful there is minimal bleeding at the moment, but the same thing occurred the first three weeks after Natalie’s first D&C. We realize that Natalie’s uterus might be slowly building up clots again and eventually gush, but there’s not much we can do right now but wait. We’re encouraged that there’s still a chance she will heal on her own, but it’s very hard to be in this constant state of limbo. We do appreciate that the doctor wants to see her in another week and is avoiding a surgery if at all possible.

Thanks for continuing to pray. When we pulled into the garage this afternoon, we immediately paused to pray and give this all to the Lord, asking for His strength and protection. “God is our refuge and strength, a helper who is always found in times of trouble, therefore we will not be afraid (Ps. 46:1-2). May that be true in our hearts every moment of the day.