On hiatus.

Hello JIA? listeners. Although our podcasting schedule has been hit-or-miss over the last 15 months (gee, wonder why?), you may have noticed a longer-than-usual absence, even for us. Here's what's going on.

Yesterday, Raya was diagnosed with minimal change disease, a kidney disorder. This is the primary cause of a condition she's been suffering for the past 3-4 weeks called nephrotic syndrome. Basically, she's got an inordinate amount of swelling in her feet, legs, and abdomen. This is caused by a malfunction in the kidneys that causes them to leak protein into the urine, rather than transfer it to the blood where it belongs.

However, the diagnosis of MCD was very good news. As her nephrologist put it yesterday, this is the "most treatable condition" which she could have had. He has started her on a course of steroids, along with some other medication. She will hopefully get some relief from the symptoms soon, and the condition itself should clear up within a few months. Future recurrences are possible, but she'll be able to recognize the symptoms much quicker if this ever happens again.

MCD is much more common in kids than adults; her doctor said that there was only a 5-10% chance that an adult's nephrotic syndrome would be caused by MCD. There are many other, scarier conditions that can cause nephrotic syndrome, such as diabetes, lupus, and some kidney-specific ailments. Also, the biopsy showed no signs of scarring or other permanent damage to the kidney tissue. So again, we feel very fortunate.

She had the biopsy last Friday, and so that combined with her swelling makes her pretty uncomfortable right now. There's just not any chance we're going to sit in front of the computer and record a podcast for a couple of weeks. We'll hope to get back in the saddle by July 27, which is the two-year anniversary of this show.

So, that's our update. Think happy thoughts for Raya, and we'll talk to you all as soon as we can!