A New Year

It's been a while since I've updated - I guess you could assume no new is good news. Sometimes I feel like it would just be the same old blah blah blah if I didn't update more often because right now our lives are blissfully uneventful.

Ever since we switched to the new Prograf we haven't had nearly as many blood draws as we were doing. The people at the labs would even roll their eyes and make it seem like I *wanted* to bring my baby in to have him poked by needles. I wouldn't be here if I didn't have to people! And then the week before we went to San Francisco for New Years Eve I got a call on Friday saying that they had messed up and didn't have enough blood (even though we had gotten more than enough) to check his Prograf. So we had to bring Joaquin back in. We decided that we would bring him in at night to check it near the time of the when we give Prograf. They ideally want the blood drawn in the morning, but we figured night was good enough since we were leaving early in the morning the next day. Well, they weren't able to get the blood drawn for some reason or another so we had to wait until after New Years to get the Prograf level drawn. I wasn't too worried about it since it had been pretty stable in the weeks before.

We had a wonderful time in San Francisco and had a great New Years. Joaquin got to spend lots of quality time with Nana and Papa (Chris's parents) and he even behaved himself. We got back on the 1st knowing that we had to turn around and be down in Palo Alto again for our appointment on the 8th. I was nervous, but I tried to stay positive.

Before the xenopax appointment at 10am we had to have blood drawn. Since I'm the one who usually takes him during the week, I let Chris take him in for that. I went outside and tried to calm my nerves and when I came back in I fully expected to hear Joaquin screaming his little lungs out... but I heard nothing. I thought to myself: Could it be that he's done? I looked in the lab and he wasn't there and so I went to the day hospital and there they were! Chris said that they got the blood drawn on the first try! That does not happen very often.

So next was the xenopax. Every one before it took them at least three tries to get the IV placed and they would have to end up putting it in his scalp. It had been a full month since the last one and so the nurses had us warm Joaquin up in a blanket to expand his veins and they checked his feet and saw some juicy veins so they decided to try his foot first, which we agreed to. I figured I'd give them one shot to try somewhere other than his scalp. Joaquin wasn't even too upset and I heard the nurse say, "Yes!" She placed it on the first try! That never happens. Chris and I exchanged thankful glances and we soothed Joaquin until they were done taping the IV down. It all went so smoothly.

After that we went over to clinic to see the doctors. Joaquin developed a gnarly looking rash around his diaper area and we were sure what it was but I was afraid that they were going to want to admit him because it seems like that's their favorite thing to do. Dr Alexander agreed with us in thinking that it was yeast related. He prescribed some nyastantin. And that was pretty much the extent of the visit. He's grown more and has gained a little weight. We want to take him off the formula that he receives over the course of the night and even though Dr Alexander agrees that he's back on the growth chart he still wants the extra "insurance" that the formula provides. Joaquin has a voracious appetite. He's always signing that he wants to eat more and saying "mo, mo!" meaning he wants more!

Our next appointment is in February - they have also scheduled a biopsy, but we've decided that we do not want to do it unless something arises that would warrant it. Something that would make us possibly decide to do it was if his creatinine was going up or something, but we just do not want to ruin a good thing. Chris and I feel the risks out weigh the benefits of the biopsy. So we are going to tell them soon. And they made no mention of when we needed to have the next blood draw! I'm thinking it will be next week some time.

Sorry it's been so long to update! Thank you to everyone's whose checking in on us! We're doing good and looking forward to good health and much more happiness in 2007!

I'll post more pictures soon.