Parker has been extra agitated the last few days. He has been throwing big temper tantrums, which in turn makes his oxygen levels on the vent go up and his blood pressure readings go up. These temper tantrums are basically a result of him being so uncomfortable due to his large kidneys. Each of Parker's kidneys are measuring about 11 cm. To give everyone something to compare that to, the average adult female's kidney is 13 cm. So his little bitty belly is supporting something that an adult usually does. So they've upped his medicine to control the temper tantrums and now he is being alternated between verced and morphine on a regular schedule instead of as needed. 
In Parker's labs and electrolytes the doctor's main concern was getting his sodium levels up. They have changed a few things, but the one major one is that his fluid is no longer 1/2 saline, it is now full saline. They ran his labs again tonight around 8 and said they should have his results back sometime tonight. So we should know by morning if this is helping his sodium go up. So far his potassium is staying low, which is good and unexpected. They thought it would have gone up by now, so you can imagine our excitement.
We also had the Catholic priest here at the hospital come in and do a baptismal for him this morning. It was very important to us that he have this done as soon as possible. He also did the anointing of the sick prayer and left the nurses extra holy water for us to use.
They did the ultrasound of his belly today around lunch. What we found out from this was that there wasn't much fluid around his kidneys and bladder. His belly is basically all kidney. So we were initially under the impression that he was having surgery to do removal tomorrow one way or the other. The pediatric surgeon and pediatric nephrologist conferenced this afternoon, though, to discuss the situation and decided differently. Now, what we are going to do is run some tests in the morning. The pediatric nephrologist ordered two different tests to determine exactly what Parker's kidney function is. The reason he decided this is because of his labs. All of his BUN and creatinine levels are coming back pretty decent. When he was born, his creatinine levels were good, at 0.7, because I was doing all of the work for him while he was in my belly. In the last few days, though, they have slowly gone up to 0.9, then 1.2, but today it went down to 1.0. The doctors seemed baffled by this. These numbers are slightly elevated, but not of extreme concern. His BUN this morning was slightly high, but once again nothing to be concerned about. This plus the very small amount of urine in his catheter makes the nephrologist believe that there is some kidney function somewhere. So the tests tomorrow will determine which kidney is functioning (one or both) and what the exact function of the kidney is. They did say that dialysis is not eminent in the next few days. It seems as though his levels are being controlled very well on their own for now. Like the surgeon said when he called me, "We do not want to do anything that is unnecessary and irreversible, because babies with their native born kidneys make it to transplant faster. Therefore, if one is functioning and we can keep it then he will do better." So these test results will be back tomorrow sometime after lunch and we will know then exactly what we are doing. We may just be inserting a dialysis port, or we may be removing one or both of his kidneys. No matter what, if he does need surgery it will be late tomorrow afternoon, so please say extra prayers then. 
We also met with the social worker here at the hospital. She is my new best friend! I love her! She has helped us and informed us with so much today that I can't even explain it.
Also, some of our best friends have organized a no tap bowling tournament benefit for us. They are amazing and are going above and beyond for us right now. Thank y'all so much! They will have more information and details available soon, but as of now they have the date set for October the 8, so save the date! We hope to see you there.
These are just a few pictures from today. If he has surgery tomorrow it will be a while before more are posted.
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