mr h you are now 4 months old
please wait until you are old enough to vote before you read todays blog
mr h has chronic kidney failure that is due to an obstruction that occurred before he was born that resulted in permanent kidney damage
this obstruction was relieved in just a few minutes after he was born
but
it was too late to save his kidneys
they are functioning well enough right now but will gradually fail more as he grows this year
now 4 months later
he is being added to the kidney transplant list with an eye to being transplanted some time after his first birthday when he gets over 10 lbs and around 23 inches tall
he has to be big enough to receive an adult kidney
the wait on the transplant list for a cadaver kidney can be over 2 years at his age
an adult may have to wait 10-15 years for a kidney
unless
they get a live kidney donor
mr h takes
medicine 3 times a day to control his blood pressure
two medicines one once a day and the other twice a day to control his high potassium level
a salt solution nacl sodium chloride several times a day to keep his sodium level up
an antibiotic to keep him from getting a kidney infection
he receives a weekly injection of a hormone that the kidney makes that stimulates the bone marrow to make red cells
he takes a multivitamin drop each day
his blood pressure is kept normal
his potassium and sodium is kept normal
his blood count hgb hemoglobin is normal
for those medical folks his creatinine is 2.2
his growth is normal for his age
it is around 50 percentile for his age
he is the product of a tall day and a short mom
this growth needs to be maintain so he can reach his goal of an early transplant hopefully after his first birthday next year
if his kidneys fail sooner he will go on peritoneal dialysis using his abdomen
a tube is inserted into the abdominal cavity and fluid is ran in and out over 12 hours every day
this is done until a kidney becomes available
either by a live donor or a cadaver donor ie someone dies usually tragically and the family donates the persons organs so others can live
i certainly would want my organs donated that way if this happened to me
i cant donate my kidney because of the monthly infusions i receive and my age
an adult kidney can be used but it has to be a small one since it an adult kidney has to fit into a little toddlers belly
lucky for mr h he has blood type ab+ that makes him a universal recipient
lucky for the live donors is that people do just fine with just one kidney
many folks just have one kidney and dont even know it
below is a video of sarah hyland a star from modern family
she talks about her two transplants she has had
mr h will need one now then will probably need his second one in his late teenage or early adult years
ms hyland freely talks about what its like to get transplanted and what its like to be on dialysis
her story is what mr h is facing
yes
for us mr hs family
this video is sobering
but
at the same time it is encouraging
the organicgreen doctor
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