Urology Visit Completed

Yesterday's appointments involved a whole lot of "hurry up and wait." I had the boys up at 6:00am and we were on the road by 6:30am, to arrive at Buffalo Children's in time for Nolan's ultrasound. We checked into Admissions and proceeded up to Radiology on the second floor. On a side note, everyone in Admissions now recognizes us, which makes things a little smoother (Oh, it's Nolan- here's your paperwork!) but is a tad disconcerting-are we really there that often?

I figured drinking 16 oz. of liquid would be the easy part- Nolan is a juice addict and normally would suck that volume down in a heartbeat. Unfortunately, this morning he decided he wasn't
thirsty. After much cajoling, begging, and putting the sippy cup to his lips, he finally drank 8 oz. They called us back for the ultrasound a little early, so I was hoping it was enough to get good pictures.

By some small miracle, his bladder was full and the ultrasound tech got great scans of his kidneys and bladder. Matthew was hovering over the tech's shoulder and had a fine conversation with her:

"What are you doing?"
"I'm going to scan your brother."
"You're going to SKIN him? How do you do that?"
"Scan him. I'm going to scan him, not skin him."

Matt looked slightly disappointed, as the appointment was far more boring than what he thought it would be. He did impress the tech, though, when she showed him the blood flow moving on the ultrasound. Matt told her, "Yes, the blood moves the oxygen around." Thank you, PBS, for your fine science education!

After the ultrasound, I had to kill a full four hours of time. Our follow-up appointment was at 1:00pm, and the parking garage was full. This meant I didn't want to risk leaving for a trip to the McDonald's playground, because there would be no parking when I returned (parking is in scarce supply at Buffalo Children's- it was nearly full when we arrived at 8:15am)! We camped out in radiology, playing with the three broken toys in the waiting room. Did I mention that Buffalo Children's has almost nothing for children to do while waiting for tests? Just sayin'...

We ate lunch in the cafeteria, which involved Nolan spinning in circles with his arms out while Matt raided the ketchup packet bin. I'm not sure if any food was consumed, but we killed 30 minutes and I was grateful that no one was crying or fighting for a full half hour.

After lunch, we headed up to urology and the boys watched some TV. The only toy in this area was a very dirty toddler play table. We still had an hour to kill, and the boys started whining and becoming difficult. I can hardly blame them- this was a very long, boring day!

The lady next to me asked, "What time is your appointment?" I told her it was at 1:00pm, and she said, "Us, too!" The family next to her said their appointment was at 1:00, too. After some general discussion, we realized all ten waiting families had appointments for 1:00pm- with the same doctor. There was no sign-in sheet, and the office was still closed because the office personnel were at lunch. I figured there would be a giant free-for-all at 1:00pm.

I was right, as the shutters over the desk went up at 1:00pm and everyone in the waiting room scrambled to get in line to put their name on the sign-in sheet. All appointments were at 1:00pm, but they take you in the order of the names on the sign-in sheet. What a crazy system!

We were finally called and Dr. W. walked in with his medical student. Luckily he remembered Nolan's history, and he let us know that Nolan's ultrasound was completely normal. We were expecting this, because it was normal last time, and now that the blockage is removed, there should be no cause for further problems. He did ask if Nolan was completely toilet trained, and I told him that he was not.

I was hoping that we would be totally discharged from urology at this point, because it would be nice to cross a specialist off the list, but he wants to keep Nolan until we can prove a fully functional bladder. This requires complete toilet training, so we will return next year for another ultrasound and follow-up appointment. If, at that point, the ultrasound is clear and Nolan is completely toilet trained, we will be discharged from urology.

Now there's an incentive to toilet train! Hopefully, by this time next year, Nolan will be sporting underwear and a smaller list of specialists!