The way I see it...

Blake Scare

Blake had labs a couple of weeks ago.  Everything went as well as could be expected with the accessing of his port and drawing blood.  They took a lot of blood and I hate that, but there was a lot of labs that needed to be done.

About two hours after our nurse left, she texted me his creatinine (kidney function), which she always does.  She said it was 2.1.  Normally at Mary Greeley it is 0.6 (which is 0.4 at UIHC).  Let me tell you, that might not sound like a big difference, but I assure you that it is.  0.6 is beautiful and right where we want it.  That 2.1 number means Blake's kidney is functioning at about 40%.  That's terrible, obviously.

As is my personality, I went into total panic mode.  I texted Aaron.  I made a mental list of all the things I would need to pack for Blake and myself.  I was trying to figure out what I would take for food and drink.  I was mentally figuring out the week and how I would get Bowen to and from preschool.  I was thinking of what they'd do when we'd get to Iowa City - re-access his port, draw labs again, ultrasound on his kidney/bladder, probably a biopsy on his kidney and they might give him some steroids thinking his kidney was in rejection.

YES, yes I know that I may have a problem, but I've been down this road before and I feel like a seasoned veteran.  For the record, Aaron was all calm and reassuring and saying he didn't believe it because Blake was acting fine.  I kept thinking, how would we know?  You can have problems with your kidney and not have a clue about it!

Anyway, just to be sure, I called over to our intake nurse and left a message.  She called me back.  I explained the situation and asked her to double check his creatinine.  I could hear the rustle of papers because there were so many labs drawn she couldn't find the sheet with that number.  What felt like a couple of days later, she said, "I have no idea where I got that 2.1.  His creatinine is 0.6."

I admit to you that the amount of relief I felt consumed me and I did indeed cry some happy tears.  The nurse was apologetic and I assured her as long as she was wrong, I didn't even care.  I think that little episode took two years off of my life.  Whew!  I guess it goes to prove that sometimes, mistakes can turn out alright, but that's just the way I see it.