Biopsy Treatment

 Zechariah 13:9

And I will put this third into the fire, and refine them as one refines silver, and test them as gold is tested. They will call upon my name, and I will answer them. I will say, ‘They are my people’; and they will say, ‘The Lord is my God.

The past 7 weeks have been full of ups and downs, good news and bad news.
This week in particular has felt like a week of refining. So many reminders to trust, to be gracious and to have faith.

Noah has been feeling and doing so well. It's hard to imagine that his body could be rejecting his new kidney because it doesn't look like it's possible.
The doctor who performed Noah's first biopsy earlier in the week was also the doctor performing the second one yesterday. He apologized profusely for what happened and admitted to being rushed before doing Noah's biopsy and not reading the notes as thoroughly as he should have.
Noah handled his second kidney biopsy well. He was pretty calm while we were waiting, and this time Dad brought him to the procedure room and I think this helped. They were able to take 3 good samples!
We were able to go home afterwards and on the qay home received a call that after the initial test, there was no obvious signs of rejection.

This morning, Noah was able to go to the Christmas assembly at school and then join his class for most of the day for games and secret Santa. He really enjoyed this and needed it!
I went out to do some errands and while out received a call from one of the nephrology doctors that changed our day.
Although the initial results show no obvious sign of rejection, it does show signs of scarring and trauma. This is not surprising since we know that the lower lobe of Noah's kidney experienced trauma shortly after the transplant and is not receiving the right amount of blood flow. The doctors are concerned now that this could be masking a mild case of rejection. They wanted to start IV steriod treatment today, and over the next 4 days.
We are still waiting for the other results, but they could take a few days and in the meantime they want to be proactive and start treating this as a mild rejection so that we are ahead of the game, especially heading into the week of Christmas.

Noah handled this news surprisingly well.
However, the IV that he had in this week, had been taken out yesterday after the second biopsy. So this afternoon a new one had to be put in, and this was not easy and was painful.
Thankfully Levi was with us and Noah was distracted by a Nintendo Switch game.

We need to go back tomorrow for another round of treatment plus some extra bloodwork to test toxicity levels. They are concerned that Noah might be metabolizing some of his anti-rejection meds either too fast or too slow and that could be part of the issue.
Then we also go back Sunday, Monday and Tuesday for treatment and regular bloodwork.

We are looking forward to the Christmas break, spending whatever time.together that we can and the Lord willing visiting with extended family.

Thank you everyone for your continued support, whether through texts, emails, phone calls, meals, childcare, rides, etc. You are all appreciated.

We continue to covet your prayers as we navigate the changes that come and climb this road that we have been placed on.

Here is the song Refiner's Fire