SEAN AND JENI: A Clean Bill of Health and the Worst Mom of the Year

Sara had her big DMSA scan at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) today. It's a scan that checks her kidney function and they were checking for any scarring left in the kidney from the 3 cm mass that had been in there. We decided to make it a family day and see some Philly sites. I went with Sara to CHOP and Sean took Lily and Matthew to the zoo. I felt like the worst mom in the world. When the child life specialist came in to explain what was going to happen to Sara she first asked Sara if she knew anything about today. Sara replied with a big frown, "Well I know my brother and sister get to go to the zoo." I don't think I could have been a worse mother at that moment...she was absolutely right. I took her to the hospital to get poked with needles and make her lay perfectly still for an hour while her brother and sister went to the zoo. Worst mom of the year award goes to me. After that they put the IV in which is always a horrendous experience and we waited for the contrast to take effect so she could go in for the scan. Sara did an excellent job in the test. With the help of a Barbie movie, she laid perfectly still on her belly for an hour while a giant machine circled around her taking pictures. We waited for anxiously for the results and were so happy when the doctor told us that not only did she have normal kidney function, but there was absolutely no scarring at all. He was shocked there was no scarring because the mass had been so huge. In fact another doctor came in the room and said he too had never seen any thing like that - absolutely no scarring after a mass took up almost all of the middle of her kidney. So that means she can stop her medication - this poor girl has been on antibiotics for almost 7 months! After that fabulous news we went to the cafeteria for ice cream...it's becoming a tradition every time we go to CHOP. We called Sean to come get us and they came with a surprise from the zoo. Matthew and Lily gave Sara a pink hippo stuffed animal. Then we went to see a few of the historical sites in Philly as a family.