Piccolina

Around our house, this little brown haired beauty is known as "Piccolina", Italian for "little one". When she was 6 months old, the doctors were very concerned about how tiny she was. She was sent to one specialist after another for x-rays, sonograms, and all manner of blood tests.




It was finally determined that she had a kidney disease, called Renal Tubular Acidosis. This required her to have medication, as much as 12 ml (that's over 2 teaspoons!) 4 times every day. We once went out of town and forgot to take her medicine. I called the doctor to see if it would be okay for her to miss taking it for just a couple of days and he said absolutely not! She would be at risk for kidney failure! YIKES!

She has had her blood taken regularly since her diagnosis and her medication has had to be adjusted accordingly. Some months, she has needed to increase it, and some months have called for a decrease.

We were told that her disease comes in 2 forms. One lasts a lifetime, and one can be outgrown. Since she seemed to be increasing her medication over time, we fully expected Piccolina to be dealing with this disease for the rest of her life.

Recently, though, her blood work has shown that she is requiring less and less of the medication. Then, last week, we got great news! After monthly blood work, the doctor has concluded that she no longer requires any medication at all!

We are thanking God that she is healthy! She is such a loving and delightful little girl, and we are blessed to have her!

Just last week, she looked at the 6 blank spaces in MaddieLynn's photo frame, and proclaimed, "Mommy! MaddieLynn only has 6 more years before she is grown up!" "Yes?" I replied. Then, she practically sobbed, "But I don't WANT her to grow up! She'll move away!"

I can't imagine how dull life would be without her!