Bullets are all my brain can take right now.

1. One doctor for the entire lot of us for Thursday clinic. I have no idea how many that is but I saw about 13 kids during the time we were there and probably another 2 in the waiting room when we left. Doc (Dr. Kind) was a little stressed, but still took time with us. Love her.

2. The appointment took a long time and Gage didn’t get to school until after 11:00 – lunch, yes lunch – is at 10:55. So we had to stop for him to eat. I think we got to the hospital at 8:30, so it was a long morning.

3. Because it was a long appointment, the numbing cream on his arm didn’t work. And yowza, was he pissed.

4. I think we are going to remove Gage’s other crappy kidney over the summer. I’d been reluctant to but have eased up on that thinking. I had thought that the surgery was a long recovery, much like transplant, but it’s not. She thinks he’d only be in the hospital for a couple of days. Which he thought was fabulous. Need to talk in depth with the surgeon.

5. I got all of Gage’s records today so I can send them to the NIH and there was some interesting stuff to read! Pathology reports with a multitude of interesting items on them! The notes from all the clinic visits with my concerns over the past 11 months and all calls of mine were noted too. It was weird seeing Gage’s transplant live columned up with comments like “Mom called and was freaking out.” Well, they didn’t actually write “freaking out” but I know that is what they were thinking during some of those calls of mine. I know this because I started some of those calls like this: “Hi, this is Gage’s mom, and I am freaking out.”

6. It’s fascinating to have all of Gage’s appointments and notes from the staff/doctors about what was going on at the time…in their words. There was a long entry from the doctor that I spoke to at this incident.

7. It’s also fascinating that Gage’s kidney biopsy “procedure note” from July was recorded on the recap/ without one mention of the mistake during the procedure with the location of the kidney (the doctor told me without hesitation it happened) but nary a word in writing.

8. Before Gage’s appointment we had breakfast at the hospital cafeteria. There’s hardly a time that we walk in the hospital that I don’t see the doctor that did Gage’s 2nd catheterthen ignored me about the problems Gage was having at the time. Interestingly enough, the notes/report from that surgery have disappeared as well. Why do I keep seeing him? He has no idea who we are either, which I guess is telling too.

9. At every appointment we go to several people come up to us and remark on how great Gage looks and ask how we are all doing. They smile, hug and are some of the most caring people I know.

10. Gage’s behavior was awesome the whole time we were there and he had a good rest of the day too, except for a minor bedtime incident, which could be chalked up to regular PITA kid stuff.