Potty Problems 2 - Hospital Problems

Yesterday, C had an appointment with the Children's Hospital of Aurora Urology department to check her progress. You can read more about the history of her situation on this previous post. A few people have asked how her check up went, but it seemed to complicated to explain to everyone, so I thought I'd write it here.

C's appointment was at 3:00. We showed up just a little bit early, and were called out of the waiting area pretty close to on time. C had her blood pressure and weight measured, she was given a bottle of water, and we were escorted to our room.

The specialist we saw three months ago, Marguerite, is now on maternity leave, so we saw Erin. One of the first things Erin said was something like, "... she'll go use the special toilet, hopefully soon because I'm supposed to go home at 3:30." She smiled. I smiled. What I was thinking was, "I didn't come here to have you push us out the door so you can go home on time."

As a side note: I'm sick. Today, I'm starting to feel better, but yesterday was pretty rough for me. The Cub is also sick, with the same symptoms, and Papa usually doesn't get home until 4:30. So, I was pretty sure I was going to have to drag all of the kids, including a snot-nosed baby, to the hospital. Yes, I made that appointment, and I chose to have four kids. I'm not complaining about having to take four kids to the doctor. I take four kids to the grocery store sometimes. It's not a big deal. But I made this appointment three months in advance. I didn't know two of us were going to be miserably sick. And I am opposed to taking feverish kids out of the house, if it can be avoided.

The day before yesterday, I called the hospital and attempted to reschedule our appointment because it was obvious that the Cub and I were not getting better quickly enough. Unfortunately, I was informed that the next available appointment was in January, so I kept the slot I already had.

Papa took a couple of hours of sick time so he could be home in time for me to take C to her appointment without having to take the three other kiddos.

Needless to say, I was not happy to feel like we were being brushed off.

Moving on...

They use this ultrasound-like wand to measure the amount of urine in her bladder. It doesn't show her bladder like the prenatal ultrasounds do, it just gives a read-out of the approximate number of milliliters of urine. Before her trip to the special toilet, she was measuring in the low 30's.

The "special toilet" is just a toilet. It has a machine hanging in it that collects and measures her urine. She had a hard time relaxing enough to go... probably because this toilet is a normal, adult toilet and she has to brace herself with her hands to keep from falling in. When she finally did, the machine measured about 5ml. But then the wand said she was empty.

Minutes later, Erin came in to quickly inform me that, in her opinion, the "special toilet" should be trusted, and not the wand. "Considering how much water she drank, she really should have peed more." She said that C should continue her potty routine and come back in a few more months.

So, ultimately, I'm not sure I have any useful, new information as a result of that visit. I feel like we were being pushed around because Erin was impatient and wanted to go home. The equipment was obviously in error somewhere along the line, and no one wanted to take the time to figure it out.

Now, we have to wait 3 more months to see Marguerite again.