Here are a series of emails from Dr. Wonderful after getting Gage’s lab results yesterday. This email correspondence occurred after 10pm. It’s no wonder we’re drawn to her.

ME:

I’m about to fax these, but here are the highlights from today.

Bun 74    (was 72)
Creat. 3.6 (was 3.8)
CRP 1.3 (was  13.4)

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HER:

Ok — so we are stable or a bit better
How is he  doing re: urine output? Behavior? General sense of well being?
How are you and Julian doing?

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ME

Hum…

A bit better, yet still at the point of making me nervous.

And Gage. Well, he is doing great with urine during the day. Typically wetting through at night with a midnight-2am change. We can live with that. The accident decrease thing we think is a result of "graduating" kindergarten mixed in with some behavioral mod things we are doing. Will urine output go down with decreased kidney function? (Dr. Google couldn’t answer).

He seems sickly looking to me, pale with red, tired eyes. He tires easily and overtires easily if we are not careful. He still seems to play enough each day. His life is full.

Stable huh? Still freaking us out. Mostly I’m just so sad for my little boy, but I’m guessing you can’t help with that.

Julia

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Her. Obviously.

Yes — I agree — this should make you nervous.  And yes — as his urine output will go down as his kidney function declines.  Good news, bad news.

At this point Gage’s kidney function is ~20% of what it should be.  This likely explains his fatigue and his pallor.

As a mother, I do understand how sad you are for your little boy.  As a nephrologist, I can’t fix it but I can be there to support both of you. Stable — I am looking for small victories — no less, no more.
Feel free to continue this dialogue as you think I can help.
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Yeah. She’s wonderful. And she’s ours.