Samuel's 32nd Update

I did not return home from the hospital until about nine last night and had to get Elianna to bed, so I was unable to send out an update. I will do my best to try to put all of the medical madness I learned yesterday into laymen’s terms so that the information is hopefully understandable. My mother and I had a long discussion yesterday as we waded through the information.

The specialist came yesterday after running his tests and thinking over Samuel’s situation and has decided on a course of action. The Renal Dr. thinks that there is an imbalance in a hormone secreted from the adrenal glands. Apparently this hormone signals the kidneys to dump potassium and retain fluids. The hormone basically tells the body that there is not enough fluid in Samuel’s blood and will not let the body release any fluid as a form of self preservation, thus creating the decreased urine output. This hormone, called aldosterone, is thus causing the body not to respond to the Lasix.

The next question was why the fluid in Samuel’s blood is low. The Dr. thinks that there is a possibility that Samuel has low albumen. When there is low albumen in the body this can cause the blood vessels to leak fluid into the surrounding tissue causing the adema.
Why is the Albumen low? Possibly because of low protein. The question is, is Samuel dumping protein, or just not getting enough in his diet. Nutrition came in and said that although Samuel has sufficient calories, he is low on potassium in his diet and proteins. This has led them to change his vitamin and begin exploring the different options of how to add protein into his diet without added calories. We are still waiting to see if the urinary tests show whether or not Samuel is spilling protein into his urine or not.

All of this is really going to be trial and error. Samuel started a new diuretic (like the Lasix) last night in the hopes that it will help reduce the fluids. This new drug inhibits aldosterone, so hopefully it will allow the Lasix to do what it is supposed to.

Until we get some of this fluid off of Samuel we will not be able to bring him home. The adema is still our biggest issue, along with the decreased urine output. Everything else affects, or is affected by, this in some form or another. Once we get the adema under control we will start seeing everything else fall into place.

Thank you for your prayers,
Kaitlyn