A difficult phone call...

The nuerosurgeon called today. Her office needed to push back the appointment from August 19th until August 31st. This shouldn't have been a big deal, but it was. I told the receptionist that I was worried, because Elijah has in a catheter full-time now and we wanted to get in as soon as possible to hopefully find the problem and get it fixed. She asked me to hold. After fifteen minutes, she returned and informed me that she had spoken to the Dr. and to her assistant and they both agree that while this may be a nuerogenic bladder, it can not be "fixed". This is just something that we need to deal with on a symptomatic level. She also said that while the urologist likes to hold out hope for his younger patients, it really just would be easier if could accept this for what it is and spend the time looking for solutions rather than hoping it will all be reversed by a surgery.

Granted, this could be true. But I am not yet wanting to settle with this news. I would like to see if we can get him in somewhere else for another opinion. I want to go sit in the office of another neurosurgeon and see if they would say the same thing. I want to take Elijah to this neurosurgeon and show her his mischievous grin and ask her how long she could keep him still enough to not pull out the catheter.

But first, we have our appointment with the urologist tomorrow. I will tell him about this conversation, I will ask him point blank what the prognosis is. I will ask him to tell me just what he knows, not what he hopes.

Please keep praying for Elijah. I know that in the scope of things that people go through, this isn't the worst imaginable, not even close. I know Elijah has been through worse and scarier. I know that he's young and resilient. But I also know that "it hurts", because he tells me every day. And I know this isn't what we want for his "long-term." Thank you for your prayers.