kidney appointment follow-up

Today was Hudson's follow up appt. with his kidney surgeon at Children's Medical College (Even though the name has changed to Georgia Health & Sciences University, it will always be MCG to me). We started the day off bright and early and were the first appt. scheduled for ultrasound. The wait in radiology was only long enough for us to check in and send our paper work back. It was great to see our favorite ultrasound tech, Brooke come out and get us. We met her at the beginning of this journey, and she even has a little boy who is only a few weeks younger than Hudson. She is so sweet to him and us. The ultrasound was typical. It took both Dave and I to hold him down with all of our strength. He screamed, and fought, but Brooke was so efficient and did her best to get the images and measurements quickly. This does not hurt him, but ever since his surgery, he gets VERY upset when he is laid down on his back for any reason at his doctors appointments.
Here's my little man after the ultrasound. You can see the sheet is in disarray, he's missing a shoe, and his face shows how he feels about the whole ordeal.We had some time to kill before our next appointment, so we met up with Mrs. Ann and she took us to this awesome playground on one of the floors of the hospital. It's floor is almost trampoline like, and all of the equipment is soft. It was a great place to cheer him up and get out some energy since we would be doing a lot of waiting. Here's my boy waiting to get his vitals taken. He wanted to sit in the chair "all by myself". I was glad to have that smile back, but it soon faded when it was time to take his temp under his arm. He let them take his blood pressure with no problem, but did NOT want his temp taken. Time for a weight check. Again, he had to do it all by himself....31 1/2 lbs. More waiting....this time watching a DVD and climbing in and out of his stroller. Most trips to CMCG result in a lot of wait time, but we totally understand that it is the best hospital for kids around and don't mind waiting because we are so blessed and fortunate to have them 25 minutes away from our house. Many of the patients you see there have traveled hours from all over the state. There are so many other sick children who also need these doctors. We count our blessings.Dr. Donohoe said that Hudson's kidney shows good growth. He obviously still has the grade 4 hydronephrosis, and always will. The part of the ureter that was tapered off during surgery looked great too. We were so relieved to receive another good check up. Nurse Reagan had to prick his finger to get a couple tubes of blood. (They were pretty small.) Hud didn't flinch when he got stuck, but got mad about having his finger squeezed. We now hope to NOT get a phone call this evening. No news is good news about his kreatinine levels.It was great to see Dr. Donohoe and his staff. He is so sweet to Hudson and always spends time talking to him. Everyone was glad to see him and could not believe how much he had grown in the 6 months since our last appointment. Nurse Reagan let him choose 2 stickers when he was finished, and he promptly told her that he wanted a "truck one and a Dora one". She granted his wish, and we were on our way.
Here he is trying to shake his band aid off his finger.The best news...Our next follow up appt and tests are in a year. A YEAR!!!! Our next appt. is Sept. 2012! I was foolish enough to believe that this boy wold fall asleep on the way home and have a long nap. As you can see he hasn't slowed down.

Thank you for the prayers. There are no words to thank all of you for caring about Hudson.