Great news!

Kennedy went in for a nuclear cystogram test yesterday. It's been a year since she had her last VCUG and was diagnosed with stage two kidney reflux on her right side (which unfortunately appeared after she had the stage five reflux surgically corrected on the left side.) She'd been in a great mood until I helped to get her into the hospital gown and up on the table. Then she knew what was coming next - the dreaded catheter. She was very brave, but obviously miserable during the procedure. Even though she cried the whole time and begged to be done so we could go home, Kennedy did an amazing job holding still for the x-rays. Apparently her bladder holds a lot, and they had to fill it to the brim. Then she was supposed to pee on the little potty seat, but she just wouldn't do it. She kept insisting through her sobs, "My body's not telling me that I need to go potty!" Finally the technician let her use the real toilet, which worked like a charm, but then we had to immediately rush her back for a few more x-rays. At first it looked like she still had a bit of reflux, but then after closer inspection she was declared free and clear. She instantly cheered up when she got to pick a prize from the treasure chest - black play dough. Then she told the technicians thank you and gave them high fives. It's such a relief that Kennedy has outgrown this! No more horrible tasting, expensive ($50 a month with insurance) daily antibiotics. The pediatric urologist said everything looks great, and hopefully we won't have to see her ever again. She's perfectly lovely, but all the same we're so glad to be done, and to already know that Macy won't be facing this either.

Jake had worked midnight to 8am to be able to come to the appointments. After we got home from the hospital and had a sandwich, I took the girls to the library to give daddy some time to sleep. Kennedy got to do some watercolor painting while I chased Macy around the stacks. Then we sat and read some pop-up books for a while, including "Mommy?" by Maurice Sendak, which is one that we have at home. Kennedy, although she was scared to death the first few times we read it to her when she was about Macy's age, grew to love this book, and we'd have to read it over and over and over until we were tired of it and had to hide it on top of the dresser. Now it's Macy's favorite, and she wants to hear it over and over and over. We were all having a great time picking out books (library trips are a new favorite activity) until Macy found the DVDs and realized how much fun it was to pull them off the shelves. OK, time to leave. It was a real pain using the self check-out for 15 books with a squirming toddler under one arm. She was much happier when I sat her on the counter, but then she kept pushing the buttons on the touch screen. I realized when we got to the car that Kennedy had forgotten her sunglasses. Too bad, I was not going back in! We called for the glasses when we got home, and they were safely held at the front desk for us. I had plans to take them to the park, but by this time I was irritated and it was hot. We went home and read books, had a tea party picnic and then enjoyed some quiet/nap time. Tomorrow we will go out for ice cream to really celebrate!