The answer is we don't really know.
He seemed fine up until the middle of October, 2010. Before then, he passed his physical every single year. When he was little, he had all the basic childhood illnesses; ear infections, colds, stomach viruses, a slight case of chicken pox because he was vaccinated, but nothing out of the ordinary.
In October, I started noticing that he seemed very tired. I kept asking him if he felt ok, and he would say yes. When I got home from work in the evenings, he would be sleeping. Then he would get up for a few hours to eat, do his homework, and be in bed again by 7:30pm. This started to worry me, but he kept telling me he felt fine. I thought to myself, 'well maybe he's just going through a growth spurt.' or 'maybe 8th grade is really hard.'
Looking back now, I do remember a few days here and there throughout September and October when he complained of a headache and under his eyes looked a bit puffy, but he has always been prone to allergies. I just thought maybe ragweed was getting the best of him this year. (now I know that the headaches were from high blood pressure, and the puffiness in the face from fluid--yikes!! how scary!!)
So I knew for a few months that he wasn't quite himself, but I couldn't quite figure out what was going on. I was getting ready to make him a doctor's appointment for the fatigue when he started throwing up one morning after breakfast. I was almost relieved because I thought 'yes! it's just the flu!! That's why he's been so tired. It totally makes sense!!'
He stayed in bed that day, but he only threw up that one time. I took good care of him that day. I went to the store to get him gingerale, crackers, soup, Gatorade...gulp...gatorade??? Yes I probably contributed to his electrolytes being sky high when he finally landed in the ER, but I'm a mom...those are things moms give their kids when they have the stomach flu...right??? I cry thinking that my simple loving gesture could have easily killed him, but I had no idea he was in kidney failure...
So anyway...he stayed in bed that day. The next day was Sunday, and he seemed to be feeling better. So, I too felt better. He went to school Monday and Tuesday, and everything seemed back to normal. Then on Wednesday, he threw up again after dinner. I would have totally thought something was going on at that point, but my 10-year-old son, Zachary, also said he wasn't feeling good. I just thought maybe we still had this stupid stomach flu running through the house.
Bradley and Zachary stayed home from school the next day, Thursday. Neither one of them threw up again that day. I cleaned the whole house top to bottom with lysol. I'm still not sure whether or not Zachary had a virus. I'm thinking maybe he was playing off of Bradley to get some time off from school...just a theory. :-)
On Friday, they both said they were feeling better, so they went to school. Bradley had a Halloween dance at school that night, and he was super excited!! I picked him up from school, and we went to CVS to get the finishing touches for his costume. He was going as a Vampire!!
The dance was a success! He had a great time!! I was so happy for him. Things seemed to be going great again. He continued to feel good throughout the weekend, and he went Trick-or-Treating on Halloween that Sunday night with his siblings and some friends.
Monday morning, November 1, 2010, Bradley woke up not feeling good. He looked horrible. His face was extremely puffy, and he looked really sick. He was complaining of a bad headache. I had him go lay down, and he threw up everywhere. I immediately knew something bad was going on; however, I was still thinking Mono or meningitis. Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought kidney failure...
I took him in to see his pediatrician that day thinking he had a bad virus or infection. They checked his blood pressure, and it was 146/90. Because of his high blood pressure and the puffiness in the face, they decided to check his urine for evidence of kidney problems. Sure enough, his urine was full of protein which is an indicator that something is not right with the kidneys.
The doctor was very calm and very professional. Being in the medical profession myself, I think back to that day and wonder if he knew at that point that he was going to be dealing with a very sick child.
He gave us a slip to go get bloodwork done at the lab downstairs, and he also gave us a prescription for blood pressure medicine. We were to get the labs drawn, pick up the prescription, and then come back to the office in the morning for another blood pressure check. We never made it to that appointment.
At 11:30pm on November 1, 2010, I recieved a call from his doctor stating that Bradley was in full kidney failure and that he needed to be admitted to the hospital ASAP.
Still in shock and not quite grasping what that meant, I called my parents who lived 2 hours away, called Bradley's father who happend to be in Massachusetts working, and then headed to the hospital with Bradley.
This is where our story begins...
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