The Kidney Story part 2

A couple of weeks after the ultrasound we went for the VCUG test. I really wasn't sure what this involved until we got there. We arrived early in the morning at Texas Childrens. We went back into the x-ray room. They suited Steve and I in these lead aprons and put Davis in the tiniest hospital gown I'd ever seen. Basically the worst part was when they put the catheter in...they numbed his little who ha first...but it didn't seem to matter he screamed! We had to hold him down on the table and watch him....ugh that is the worst. They then proceeded to fill his bladder up with dye and then took a million x-rays of his bladder contracting. The only problem was that Davis kept peeing every time they would try to fill his bladder! He tinkled all over their fancy x-ray machine and most of the staff! Basically, they wanted to see how bad the reflux was....or if he had it at all. The reflux is based on a 1-5 scale 5 being the worst. We immediately saw the reflux. Dr. Janzen called us later and told us that he has a grade 4 reflux.

This sort of gives you an idea of the reflux grades...the only difference is that Davis has two ureters instead of the one shown in the picture.

She said that we will continue to do tests and watch it, but in the meantime he will be on antibiotics pretty much for the first year of his life just to make sure he doesn't get any kidney infections. He started on amoxicillin....which for babies is HOT PINK! Who thought of that? I mean for weeks I was washing out pink stains EVERYWHERE! When she got the results of the VCUG test she wanted to switch him to Bactrim....which is clear/purple...but doesn't stain as bad. Steve and I got sick of him spitting it up so now we just mix it with formula and give it to him in a bottle.

So at the end of the day Dr. Janzen said sometimes this clears up on its own....in fact she said some people live their entire lives with this condition without even knowing. However, the worst case scenario would be that he has a laparoscopic surgery in which the extra ureter is 'retunneled' into the bladder at a different angle...this should stop the reflux and fix the whole problem. In the meantime we just wait. We go back to for another ultrasound July 15. I'll update then.