An Update on Conner's Testing

Wow, today has been a BUSY day!!  I'm beat!  This is the first time I'm sitting down today, and I wanted to come here and update everyone before I do anything else, since I know that we have had many people praying for us.  Scratch that.  Had to run and take my brother to pick up his car, then go to the grocery store, so now, for real, I am sitting down to type :). 

First off, THANK YOU for your prayers.  They seriously, genuinely mean the world to us!

Today Conner had an ultrasound to see if they could figure out why he is urinating so often.  They looked for masses putting pressure on his bladder or kidneys, they looked to see that he had all his tubing and that no tubes were fused together or anything, and they looked to see that everything was as it should be size-wise. 

They found that everything looks normal!  The only issue Conner has is that his urethra opening is too small (about 1/2 the size it should be).  Dr. Zuniga said that is common for circumcisions, as scar tissue forms from the circumcision, making the hole smaller than it should be.  I have to say, that was hard to hear.  It was hard to hear because I really, really, really did not want to circumcise Conner.  I fought David on it, but finally gave in.  My gut was telling me not to do it, and I gave in.  I am still mad at myself for that, because I did not trust my instincts.  I'm not knocking those who choose to, trust me, I'm not, I'm just mad because I just knew it would go wrong, and I didn't listen to that little voice telling me so.  They did not take off enough skin either, so he still looks uncircumcised (we have known they did not take off enough skin for a while now), but I told them they are not touching it again to fix it, unless he wants it done when he is older and can make that choice himself (which is how I wished we had handled it to begin with).  The doctor said it could be contributing to the problem, but he does not think it is the cause of the problem.  He said we just need to watch it.  If the opening does not continue to grow adequately, then he will need a surgery to make it bigger.  He said that wouldn't be until he was 7 or 8, though.

The doctor said it is very common for children Conner's age to have this problem, and that they normally grow out of it on their own.  He said allergy testing couldn't hurt, but he also did not feel that was the issue.  He said we need to watch it and just see what happens.  He said to expect it to take about 6 months to 1 1/2 years to go away, though it should slowly get better.  That's a long time to carry plastic cups for when we're driving and Conner has to go NOW and I have to pull over so he can go, but hey, I will GLADLY take that over the alternative :).  He also said to come back if he starts having accidents and being unable to make it to the bathroom.  He was a bit surprised he's waking up to go 1-3 times a night, but said that is ok too.

So, for now, we watch and wait, but we feel much better knowing it's nothing major (a mass, diabetes, etc...) and it's not a UTI. 

Conner has decided he loves the hospital.  After his appointment we went to the cafeteria to eat because it was past lunch time and we still had a 30 minute drive home.  On our way to eat, we saw.....

.... Star Wars characters!   They were set up in the hospital for the kids to see.  Madi hated them, but Conner loved them.  R2D2 was a robot controlled by remote control.  Conner LOVED it!  They also gave both of the kids a toy.  Conner chose an Anakin Skywalker (sp??) figurine and Madi chose a doll with a bottle.  Conner says he wants to come back to the hospital soon.  Oh, dear child, let's not say that.  We will be back soon enough.

In other news, we have a teenager, Kyla, staying with us for a while.  Her mom and younger siblings moved to be with her younger sibling's father (he moved for work) and she is staying with us to be able to finish up with highschool.  I helped her have a garage sale today to get some money for gas and all that fun stuff, and she made $150, which is great!  I'll help her again tomorrow.  The kids really love her, and she's great with them!

That's it for now, thanks again for the prayers!