More Health Issues, More Tests

Last night I had to rush Jamie to the after-hours clinic. He'd been complaining off and on for a couple of days that it burned sometimes when he peed. He's had a UTI before, so I just told him to drink more water and got him some cranberry juice to drink, too. Then last night, after his 5th grade holiday concert at school (not his strings concert, that's later this month), he went pee after he got out of the shower and screamed like he was being killed. He said it hurt really bad when he went pee, his back hurt (where the kidneys are) and there was some blood and a blood clot in his urine.

Okay, do not pass go, do not collect $200, just get your butt to the clinic! We get there, finally get checked in, and start describing this to the PA. He tells Jamie to pee in a cup, Jamie produces a sample, and they go test it. The PA comes back, says there's blood in the urine, but they can't tell if there's any infection or not. They can tell Jamie is mildly dehydrated. He pounds on Jamie's back (where the kidneys are) and Jamie yells. The PA says he thinks Jamie may have either kidney stones or an infection, so he sends us over to the hospital with the pee and orders for an ultrasound of Jamie's kidneys and some blood work. Of course, at 11:00 at night, they don't do ultrasounds and/or blood work, so I have to call today and make an appointment. We should know in 5 working days what's going on, but in the mean time I'm to keep forcing the water and cranberry juice on Jamie. We got home so late that Jamie stayed home today to rest and drink fluids.

On top of all that, Jamie's having increased difficulty breathing when he's active. Then when he has trouble breathing, his heart just about pounds out of his chest. Don't know if it's a type of panic attack because he can't breathe, a reaction to the fact that he can't breathe, or something else (heart conditions do run in the family - my mom, my grandmother, both my mom's brothers - all from early ages have had heart problems). So, Jamie has an appointment Dec. 26 with his asthma doc for her to see if the asthma has gotten worse, what we need to do about Jamie's soccer (if he can still play), and if the heart thing is asthma or panic related, or if we need to be referred to someone else on that.

I'll keep you all informed as to what the tests find. I'm ready to pull my hair out. I can't be everywhere and do everything I need to do. I'm so tired of jumping from one crisis situation to another, with no chance to rest or get my feet under me before another crisis is thrown at me. I almost feel like I'm in a war zone; I never know what's coming at me next, where the next bomb is going to land. I just stumble along, like some crazy game of "pin the tail on the donkey" - I'm blindfolded, dizzy, spun around and told to put the piece where it belongs. Well, I'm sorry, I don't seem to know where the pieces are supposed to go anymore, I have to just put it wherever I can and hope it's the right spot. Yanno?