On Tuesday, the day after my crisis with the wallet, we were summoned to the hospital by our pediatrician to discuss the results of Lucas's ultrasound on his renal system. On the ultrasound it appeared that he has a "duplicated collection system" on his left kidney. Meaning that he may have two ureters. "Not horribly unusual" as the doctor put it. However when I asked this PROFESSOR OF PEDIATRICS AT UNM if she had ever seen one she replied "no". This would potentially explain the bladder infection. So urine was collected and blood was drawn (a horrible experience in itself) and the results said that he is just fine. His kidneys are functioning well according to the blood. His urine revealed that he had . . no infection. WHOO HOO. Now he goes onto a long term antibiotic to keep any more infections from occurring which could cause kidney damage if undetected. And in a two year old they are had to detect, especially if your two year old has a speech delay.
And so we have made the agonizing decision to stop house hunting and begin saving money like crazy in case BOTH of our kids need surgeries this coming year. After dealing with AJ's surgery, when we had tons of disposable income in our wild and exciting pre-child days (remember those?), we know that this could end up being 10's of thousands of dollars.
Before we get the pity party started please keep in mind that the kids sitting next to Lucas in the waiting room were kids who were REALLY sick. One little boy didn't have any hair probably because he was undergoing treatment for cancer. His parents understandably looked like shit. Another little baby in the room had a deformed skull. SO. Let's keep this in perspective. That is what got me through the 3 years of AJ's injury. At least this isn't life threatening. And also we don't even know for sure that there is a problem, just the possibility. We go on Wednesday for more testing where they are going to draw more blood and then put a catheter up him so they can fill his bladder with a dye. Then they take a bunch of pictures and watch where the dye goes when he urinates.
That's it for now, we are off to the aquarium today if everyone's sniffles have improved.
Oh and I don't know why but this computer won't let me link a word in the text to a website so you just have to look at all of this uglyness:
http://www.healthatoz.com/healthatoz/Atoz/common/standard/transform.jsp?requestURI=/healthatoz/Atoz/ency/congenital_ureter_anomalies.jsp
6 days ago
Wow. I gotta tell ya, it is fairly common. I have two ureters on one side, have had the bladder/dye test more times than I care to count, have had two surgeries, and ended up fine. ;) Fine, I suppose, is a relative term. LMK if you have questions, though it's been umpteen years.
ReplyDeleteI am glad that nothing major was discovered. Sara had that bladder dye test too because she got a UTI while in the NICU.
ReplyDeletePutting things in perspective is what got us through the entire ordeal. Sure it was bad, and not a fun time in our life, but there were lots of babies who had it alot worse than Sara.
It helps to always remember how lucky you are that you have happy healthy kids!
Aren't you glad you're not in Carlsbad anymore? The doctors here would have NEVER figured out what was wrong! At least you are now in a place where you can get good treatment for both of the kids. I hope everything goes well for them. Are you going to stay where you are, or find an apartment or a house to rent?
ReplyDeleteThe doc did say that the dye test is done frequently on babies which makes me feel a bit better about the procedure. So maybe we will find out why his lower left kidney is enlarged.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, AJ and I were just saying how nice it is to not have to pay for a hotel room in order to get good medical care! I feel for ya Joanne, we stayed in hotels a lot for AJ's stuff and we had it much easier than you do - we didn't have kids!