A Lifestyle Change--Low Sodium for ALL...

The view from Hwy 64 driving into Louisville
You can see two bridges with the sun
coming up. It was a God thing!

So, we woke up yesterday morning SUPER early! The LONG awaited doctor's appointment for ObeWan had arrived. We scheduled it in December 2014 for February 17, 2015. Due to our awesome WEATHER it was rescheduled for March 31, 2015. It felt like forever for us to get answers to Obe Wan's bladder/kidney/liver problems. We really didn't get many answers today, but we have a place to start.
  I admire my husband when he is in town. We left at 7:20 to make it to our downtown Louisville appointment at 8:30. We arrived at 7:57 to the parking garage. We still needed to navigate our way through the garage and through two hospitals! We needed to be there 15 minutes early for blood work, a urine sample and paperwork! We were right on time! We will be going back, so I made sure to schedule the appointment much later in the day!

Dr Shah, our doctor, is a Pediatric Nephrologist at Norton Hospital. He was super nice and patient as Obe Wan sighed 20 times. (I kid you not. I counted.) Dr. Shah doesn't think it is liver, but it may be kidneys and is definitely bladder. We are going back to see him in six weeks. In the meantime, we get to do two 24 hour urine samples, an ultrasound on bladder, kidney, stomach and liver, we have to limit our sodium to less than 1500 mg a DAY and use the bathroom every hour and then five minutes after we use the bathroom.  Dr. Shah says to be diligent on the weekends and talk to his teacher about the bathroom. NO SODA and a TON of water!!

Obe Wan feels good about what was said today. Dr. Shah would like to rule out: (Best to worst case scenario) Crystallized bladder walls (this is quite common and can happen when calcium mixes with sodium in the bladder, hence the decrease in sodium), Kidney Stones, Spastic Bladder (again) or Lupus. I am NOT going to WedMD any of this. I am going to do what he says as we truly KNOW nothing. If you feel compelled to do research on any of this--go for it, just don't tell me anything about anything you read. The Internet can be a super scary thing and for all we know this may be all about the spastic bladder he was diagnosed with four years ago. Spastic Bladder may be something that was never cured and never will be. Obe Wan may have to be on bladder meds the rest of his life. In the mean time I will research a Low Sodium Diet for all of us. I also pledged to give up soda as well. (WHAT THE HELL WAS I THINKING?)

We decided to have our "last supper" today. (Appropriate as we enter Holy Week) and went to Chuck E. Cheeses. Because I am single parenting it, I had both boys with me. YEAH!