May 3, 2010 - 1:00pm

 Day 8
Some days sure are busier than others.  In the last hour Dr. Vo came in and spoke with us for a while about the procedure that is scheduled now for tuesday at about 10:00am and Ali went and got her renal scan, which compares the two kidneys and how much they are working - Ali's are 46% and 54% which is pretty close to normal, it will also show a clearer picture of each kidney and the arteries supplying them.

We spoke with Dr. Vo for awhile about the renal arteriogram, and possible angioplasty and renal vein sampling that he suggested doing tomorrow.  A little nervous about the whole procedure but also hoping he can find and fix a problem to get Ali feeling better.  He did mention that at her age and size of the artery branches there was about a 50/50 chance of finding a problem (if it is there).  If he didn't find a problem he could fix with angioplasty then he would take a renal vein sampling (sampling of the blood coming out of each kidney) which will tell him how each kidney is working and whether one is elavated over the other.  This could supply more evidence pointing toward renal artery stenosis and that at this point it may be just too small to see.  If he could not find a problem that he could correct with angioplasty then we would continue to treat with medications and he would want to take another look in about a year when the arteries were a little bigger.  He suggested doing this now rather than later after she has gone home for a while and has had her blood pressure under control for a bit with medications because he had expected a much more positive affect of the medications to this point and they are using 3 medications to get it to where it is at and possibly moving toward a 4th.  We are nervous about tomorrow, yet hopeful it all goes well and Ali comes out of it much for the better.