Update on Halli

Two weeks ago on Wednesday, was supposed to be the last day that Halli needed to take her meds. We woke up and gave her her last pill, feeling very excited to be finished. We also tested her urine for protein. We were supposed to be testing her a couple of times a week, but because she had tested negative for a couple of weeks, we got lazy. We hadn't tested her for about three weeks. When we looked at the test, her protein count was really high again. My stomach dropped. I began to kick myself for getting lazy as I didn't know how long it had been high. I immediately called her doctor at Primary Childrens. Because we were to be going out of town to NY for the week, he wanted us to come in before we left. As we met with him, he told us that he was a little concerned that she was having a relapse so quickly after being "off" the meds. Although, we did expect that she would probably have a relapse, we didn't think it would come so soon. We left the office with heavy hearts, and a new prescription for a second round of the steroids. We began her second round the day before we left to NY. We have been testing her urine daily to check the protein levels. (We learned our lesson and are faithful now...) As of Monday, her count has become negative again. So we can begin to taper her down again beginning next week. It will take about six weeks to taper off. I hope and pray that this time, maybe her little kidneys will keep working on their own. She has taken this all so well, hardly skipping a beat. She always gets up and leaves her "sample" for me each morning and has her bowl of "mush" to take her pills with. She is so brave and strong. It just breaks my heart to think of what she has to go through, yet she just keeps living from day to day; smiling and whistling all the while. I can take a lesson from her that no matter what challenges are thrown our way, we can just take it and keep on loving and living. As for now, we'll just keep praying that she'll respond to the meds this time. In the meantime, I'll just get up each day and whistle along with my little munchkin as we carry on.