There's Good Around The Corner

Remember how Ashtyn’s kidney’s were acting strange by producing over four times the amount of urine than usual? After two weeks it all started to make sense. Originally the kidney doctors thought she had a kidney injury from possible sepsis three weeks ago. They felt that if the kidney’s produced a lot of urine, IV fluids of equal amount should be given to avoid dehydration that could cause more injury. After two weeks of giving near the same amount of IV fluids as what was coming out, it became clearly apparent that a new approach needed to be tried. On Sunday night an oncologist agreed that she was probably fluid overloaded and decided to let her body naturally get rid of urine without giving her IV fluid in return. Her blood pressure, heart rate, and glucoses were checked regularly and everything remained within normal range. Monday she drank a normal amount of water and was not given additional IV fluids. On Tuesday morning I asked her team if everything looked great during the day and coming night, if she could leave the hospital Wednesday. They agreed it was a reasonable goal. I pushed a little further and asked if she could basically go directly to the airport from the hospital and fly home until Monday. She has to be back in Seattle for a bone marrow transplant meeting on Tuesday the 8th so the window of opportunity to be home was slim. The doctor wanted her to have a clinic visit on Friday to check blood levels and make sure all was well. Luckily we have Primary Children’s Hospital 20 minutes from our house and asked if she could be seen there on Friday. Throughout the day the oncology and bone marrow transplant teams collaborated. They felt it was safe enough for Ashtyn to go home to have rejuvenation time before the transplant.  We are flying out of Seattle today and will be home in Salt Lake City for five days. There always seems to be good around any difficult corner.