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"Never suppress a generous thought."

-Camilla Kimball

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Hydronephrosis Part Three

I just love that The Chocoholic was born in December so that everything happening here was happening in December!  LOL
December 20, 1999.  We took him back to the children's hospital to have another renal exam.  This time it wasn't so easy to put in the catheter.  He was crying  and I was crying and it wasn't pretty!  Finally they got the catheter and the I.v. in.  They strapped him down on the exam table where he proceeded to cry and cry some more.  They gave him a sucker and that calmed him down for about 15 minutes.
When it was over, we met with the pediatric urologist.  We were told that 90% of the time, hydronephrosis happens in boys, and 90% of the time, it is in the left kidney, and 90% of the time, there aren't any problems.  In fact, in the years before ultrasounds, we would have never known he even had this.  But it's that 10% that need intervention that are truely helped by all this.  When the doctor looked at the scans of his kidneys, he smiled.  When we were there last time, the split was 60/40, meaning that one kidney was doing 60% of the work.  But this time the split was 55/45.  The doctor said, "He is fine and I hope to never see you again!"  I cried all the way to the car.  What a relief that was.
So our experience with hydronephrosis came to an end.  All that stress over nothing.  But it could have been worse, and I am so glad that he is healthy!

Hydronephrosis Part Two

After The Chocoholic was born, the pediatrician examined him.  The kidneys weren't swollen, and he had peed on the nurses just after he was born, so he felt everything would be okay.
Less than 2 weeks later, we went to the children's hospital for an ultrasound.  The right kidney was completely normal, and the left kidney was 1 cm. longer.  But they weren't concerned at all.  The pediatric urologist scheduled us for a renal exam and bladder x-ray the next month.
Boy, weren't those fun.  Ever watched a 1 1/2 month old get an i.v.?  And a catheter?  I just cried while they were doing it, mainly because they were having to hold him down to do it all!  But he was so good about it!
The renal exam is to check for blockage. They laid him on a "table" that had the “cameras” on both the top and the bottom, so he was inside, kind of. It was open on both ends.  They put sandbags over his feet, then one over each arm. He had to lie still for the pictures. Then they brought in this tube that has radioactive symbols and warnings all over it. They opened it up, and it's lead lined, with a tiny needle inside. They injected it into his I.V., then we waited. They had a computer screen that was showing the particles as the collected in his kidneys. It took a picture every 15 seconds. It was kind of cool to watch as the kidneys began to show up. The right kidney "dumped" the particles almost right away into the bladder, but they stayed in the left kidney a lot longer. They watched that for 20 minutes, then they gave him a diuretic to make him pass the remaining particles into his bladder. It took the left kidney quite a while to pass them. That took 25 minutes. He slept during the whole thing. When they were finished, they took out the I.V., which woke him up and made him cry again.
Then we went into a waiting room to wait for the bladder x-ray. This is to check for reflux, if the bladder is pushing the urine back up into the kidneys. I fed him while we were waiting. When they called him in, I had to lay him on a table and the nurse gave Tom and I both lead vests to wear so we could stay with him. I held his hands, and she hooked up a bottle of saline to his catheter. She just held it up in the air and the saline flowed into his bladder. It took less than a minute, and his bladder was full. She then took some x-rays of his bladder. Then she called a dr. in to watch him "void." They took out the catheter and took x-rays while he was "voiding." After they were done, she left to go get something, and he peed again. I think he peed 3 times in all! But the good news is there was no reflux!
So we were told to come back in a year and they would do it all again to see what was happening. 
I bet you didn't anticipate a part three, did you?

Hydronephrosis

When I was pregnant with #3 (The Chocoholic), I was really nervous because I wanted a girl so badly.  I had even been feeling like it was a girl.  I know, we are just supposed to want our babies to healthy and strong, but I wanted a girl desperately!  The night before the ultrasound, I had my husband give me a Priesthood blessing and afterwards, I felt such a calmness.  I knew I could handle it and would be okay. 
We had the ultrasound at 20 weeks, discovered that he was a boy, and I was strangely calm.  I was disappointed, but I knew it would okay.  As we were sitting in the exam room waiting for the doctor, the nurse came in and said, "So are you the couple that is having problems with your baby?"  We said no, and she quickly hurried out, but then I started to panic. 
When the doctor came in, he said there might be a problem with one of the kidneys of the baby.  There was some extra fluid in the left kidney, and the tube to the kidney was slightly dilated.  He told us to come back in 2 weeks and they would check it again.
The next afternoon, I was watching Oprah and they were talking about parenting tips and she had on a couple who had 10 boys, ages 22 to 4. I started to cry. Just a little bit. Then harder and harder. It just really hit me. I was totally sobbing. I had to call and tell Tom something, and I could barely talk. I finally calmed down and then my mom called me to see if I had watched it and I started to cry again. It doesn't mean I don’t, or won’t, love this baby, but I just needed to cry.
Two weeks later we had the ultrasound and the kidneys looked the same.  My OB told me they will just wait and do another ultrasound at 34 weeks and if it was the same, then we would let the pediatrician know and go from there.  It wasn't serious enough that anything had to be done right away.  Except stress about it!
I went to the doctor at 34 weeks and had another ultrasound. The baby's kidneys were still dilated. I will try to explain it without pictures!
There are 2 sections to the kidney, the place where it holds urine and the working part. The place where it holds the urine would normally be 1cm wide. The baby's are 1.25 cm. This means that the urine is not draining into the bladder like it should. The doctor said that sometimes a little flap grows in the ureter, which blocks the urine. If the working part starts to shrink at all, then he would send me to Primary Children's Hospital to see a pediatric surgeon/specialist. He told me this isn't something that we should take lightly, but we also shouldn't stress about it.   LOL  Tell a mother something is wrong with her baby, but don't stress about it!
They gave me ultrasounds every week to keep and eye on it and finally in December, I was induced and delivered a healthy baby boy. 
But lest you think our story is done, stay tuned for part two!