Morning Routine

Every morning here is what happens:

*Cody wakes up, pees in his urinal, we use Albustix to check for protein

*He checks his weight

*We take his blood pressure

*Record all of the information in his notebook for our next doctor's appointment.

If your child only has IgAN, he/she will not be doing these things most likely. If they have IgAN with Nephrotic Syndrome, problems with retaining fluid, high protein spillage, or high blood pressure then they most likely will be doing some of this.

For new parents out there, this is not a long term thing. Cody will be doing this until 1)his protein is trace or negative for at least 3 days in a row or 2)he is off the prednisone.

We were only checking his protein levels until he started swelling in the abdomen, back, and in the genital area (which he had never done before) and we were told that the prednisone can cause you to retain salt and fluid (enter 1200mg low sodium diet here along with 4 cups of fluid per day - unless he's doing sports and sweats a lot then the nurse told us to go ahead and give him more) and losing high amounts of protein in urine causes oedema. Once that happened, the nephrologist told us to monitor weight and blood pressure also.