Atlanta

Sunday afternoon, Arabelle and I struck out for Atlanta. She wasn't sure why we were going, except to see a doctor, and she wasn't sure about leaving Bo at Mamaw and Papaw's, but she was glad to be going on a trip. Neither one of us were too excited to leave Bo (this was our first time away overnight!), but it had to be done and I knew he was in capable hands. :)

Arabelle had her yearly checkup and tests for her bladder reflux. We had to be at Scottish Rite at 8:30 Monday morning, so we spent the night nearby. We gave our hugs and kisses in Pineview and headed north!

Arabelle wanted to take a baby doll from Mamaw and Papaw's house, so she grabbed the doll, who was dressed in pink from head to toe. On the way she asked me the baby's name. I told her she could name the baby and she quickly said "This is Bo!". She also told me "Bo said he wanted to go to Atlanta.". She seems to always know just what Bo wants. :)

We stopped in McDonough for supper and Target. She thought I said "McDonalds", but luckily, she didn't see one before we stopped at Chili's. Their kids' menu is a picture menu, so Arabelle pointed out what she wanted.....a corn dog, corn on the cob, and apple juice. They brought the apple juice in small cans (2) and she thought that was the neatest thing. She only drank one and held the other one all the way to Atlanta. She kept saying it was her "Coke". I never thought about it, but this was the first time the 2 of us had ever been to a restaurant alone! She kept hugging me and being silly. She loved it!

Excited about her apple juice!

We made it to Atlanta and got checked in, then snuggled up for some Mickey Mouse before bed. 

She slept great, but I was afraid I was going to oversleep, so of course, my one baby free night and I wake up all night long! I got her up and dressed and we went down for breakfast and headed over to Scottish Rite.

Waiting in the Registration area. Watching the birds.

Waiting in the radiology waiting area.

They had the Disney Channel on in the Radiology waiting room, which was pretty crowded. They started "Mousercising" and Arabelle joined in! She was jumping and crawling around with Mickey Mouse and everyone was chuckling. She didn't even notice them!

First she had a renal ultrasound, which showed normal, healthy kidneys. Since she has not had any infections since she was a baby, that was what I expected.  It took a lot of convincing for me to get her on the table and laying still enough, but she finally did it. She kept saying "I don't want that on me!".

Then we went to another small waiting room.

Next she had the VCUG, which was more invasive and involved a catheter. She did NOT like that at all, as expected. I stood at her head and another lady had to hold her legs down the entire time. She did eventually calm down and was just whining through the rest of it. Her favorite part was getting to "pee" on the table at the end so they could watch the contrast dye leave her bladder on the x-ray. On the way home she said "Mama, don't pee on the table tonight!!!" and laughed. :)

Once it was done and she got her balloon and stickers, she was fine. We walked across the campus to her Dr. appt. and got the news we were praying and hoping for! Her reflux had improved again. Now it is grade 2 reflux on both sides. It is graded 1-5 with 5 being most severe. At 1 year she was grade 2 and 4. He gave the option to continue antibiotics daily for another year, or stop them. Since she has been potty trained for about a year, we both felt it was safe to stop them, so that is what we chose. As long as she stays infection free, next year we just have to have a renal scan to ensure her kidneys still look healthy and if that's the case, no more follow up is required! He feels confident with the improvements she's made in the last 2 years (and the fact that she's had no infections), it will fully resolve over time.

We were so glad to get out of there! I told her we were going to stop for lunch and she said "I want to eat a Chilis!". haha! We got Chick-fil-a, which she still enjoyed. :)