Changed Diagnosis

Boston and I went to Children's Mercy yesterday to have his labs drawn and then were back again today to talk over the results with Dr. Blowey. His lab work remains stable. His protein to creatinine ratio in his urine was 5.81 to 1. Anything over 0.5 is abnormal, so 5.81 is definitely an indicator that he is dumping protein in his urine. The expectation has been from the beginning that as he continues to dump protein in his urine that his protein level in his blood would drop too, and thus cause all of the complications, but we have not seen this happen. His protein in his blood (albumin) was 3.3; he has ranged from 3.1 to 3.8 with 3.5 being the bottom end of the normal range.

Because of Boston's miraculous stability and the fact that he has protein in his urine, but none of the other signs of congenital nephrosis, Dr. Blowey changed his diagnosis from congenital nephrosis to proteinuria (a diagnosis that means he has protein in his urine). Dr. Blowey says he looks great and we have done all that we can, so now we just watch him and keep our fingers crossed. Our next follow up appointment is in two weeks.

This is such a cause for praise in our household. I have been challenged to be completely and utterly joyful and giving of praise to God for what he is doing in Boston's life. My tendency was to be "cautiously hopeful" and to not fully embrace Boston's health as a miracle out of fear that he could take a turn for the worse. Over the past couple of days I have come to realize that God is not one who makes us "knock on wood" that he won't take our blessings away -- He doesn't punish us for being too happy with his gifts. And so we embrace Boston's health for what it is--an absolute miracle and answer to prayer. And we praise God for his goodness and mercy and for our beautiful boy!