Like Mother, Like Daughter

Well, the good news first. This past Friday I had my follow-up with the urologist, and I am kidney-stone FREE! Yeah! I had a another CT Scan, and she showed me the difference between this one and the one I had the day Ellie was born, and it was all clear. After reviewing the scan, we then chatted about prevention measures if I were to become pregnant again because now I'm more likely to develop kidney stones again (great!) Drinking a lot of water and eliminating excess calcium from my diet were things I already knew, but she also told me to take a few teaspoons of lemon juice each day. Lemon juice is the best natural form of citrate which offsets calcium build-up in your body. So I learned something new there! She also asked me if I had a lot of morning sickness early in my pregnancy (yes, morning, noon, and night!) and thought that that's probably when all the problems started because I would have been really dehydrated during that time. So, that's the good news...

Unfortunately, a few hours after my appointment we got Ellie's kidney ultrasound results, and she needs to have more testing done. Her kidneys look good now, but one of her ureters (the tube between your kidney and bladder) was dilated putting her at increased risk for vesicoureteral (urine) reflux. I had no idea what that was so have been researching online. Urine is only supposed to flow in one direction, from kidney through ureter to bladder, and reflux is basically when it flows in the wrong direction. It's not an uncommon problem in infants and is something that can correct itself as a child ages though which is a good thing. I found this site which explains the detail if you're really interested in educating yourself!

www.urologychannel.com/pediatric/vur.shtml

At this point, we don't even know if she has the problem so Wednesday we head to the hospital again for more testing. It is not an extremely serious condition, but something that they need to check because the most common symptom is urinary tract infection which would require antibiotic treatment.

The test she's having done is called a voiding cystourethrogram (VCUG) - another thing I needed to research (http://www.radiologyinfo.org/en/info.cfm?pg=voidcysto&bhcp=1). It's supposedly painless, but doesn't sound pleasant. Basically what they'll do is fill her bladder with a fluorescing liquid, and then use X-ray to watch whether the liquid flows in the right direction. To fill her bladder though they need to use a catheter, and she'll also need to hold really still. I don't think this will be a fun appointment, but something we need to have done. If the result is that she does have reflux she'll be put on antibiotics to prevent a UTI.

So, I guess if you get anything out of this post, it's an increased knowledge of the urinary tract! I know I've learned more than I ever would have thought with all these issues and procedures we've have in the last 3 months. Everything has worked itself out so far though, so hopefully Ellie's appointment on Wed. will be nothing more.