Good news, bad news.
It was the week of doctoring... Monday for me, and Wednesday and Thursday for E.
Wednesday, we were at CHEO for the afternoon as E had to have an ultrasound of his kidneys and today it was a visit to his family doctor for his 6 month check-up and shots.
Back in February when we were referred to a pediatrician for E's weight-gain issues... the ped. ordered an ultrasound of the kidneys as I had mentioned in my patient history that all of my pre-natal ultrasounds showed cysts on the right kidney of the baby.
Since no one had followed up on this post-delivery, she felt it was a good idea to have it checked just so we would know everything is okay.
So... three months later we got in to the children's hospital and the ultrasound was completed. (Just entering the doors of CHEO you realize how lucky you are to have a happy, healthy baby, it broke my heart to see some of the children in the halls - we are so blessed to have a children's hospital near by).
Our appointment was at 2:15 pm yesterday, and then coincidentally E was to see his family doctor today at 3:15 pm (as his 6 month appointment was pushed back a few times due to scheduling conflicts with the doctor's office).
The good news from today's appointment with the family doctor is that E is up to a whopping 16 lbs 3 ozs and 27.5 inches... which puts him at the 10th percentile on the holy graph... he no longer is taking up the bottom rung on the ladder, and this was very pleasing to me. I was not surprised to see he has gained a whole kilo since his last visit, as he has taken a real liking to solids.
However... the good news quickly came to a halt when the family doctor surprised me with the results of yesterday's ultrasound (we were told they would take a week). As it turns out, the news is not good (which is most likely why the results were so quick).
E has a non-functioning right kidney... meaning he is only operating on one good kidney - the left. The right kidney is not even really a kidney... its mostly a mass of cysts making up the kidney.
Enter look of shock and fear on my face as the doctor is trying to explain this to me.
Of course there is some 26 letter medical name for it that I can not for the life of me even remember how it sounds (and being the good mother I am, I didn't even ask for him to write it down for me).
The upside is that we really only need one good kidney to do the work... the second one is a bonus (as it was explained to me). Obviously E is thriving and doing fine with one, but its the longer term affects of this kidney that are worrisome.
Does the defunct kidney need to be removed or will it shrink up to nothing as he grows older? Will the cysts attach themselves to the good kidney or other major organs? Or could the defunct kidney start shedding over time causing other medical problems for him down the road? The possibilities (in my mind) are endless at this point.
The immediate reaction of the doctor is 'not to panic' - too late. Although I am doing my best to remain calm (I only shed a few quick tears on the drive home before I told myself not to freak out until we know more - and I am sticking to that pep talk). As quick as the doc received the results of the ultrasound, he was even quicker to assure me that we would be going back to the pediatrician who will then most likely refer us to a specialist. His main concern is blood pressure, as apparently your right kidney controls your blood pressure, so without it, there must be some repercussions, but of course we won't know anything until we talk to the pediatrician/specialist.
I keep trying to put this into perspective... that its not life-threatening at this point, and that we have caught this issue very early which means time is on our side to address it. However, I keep playing the scenario over in my head, that if I had never mentioned the cysts from the pre-natal ultrasound, and if the pediatrician had just breezed over it (like my family doctor would have), in 10 or 15 or 20 years, E may have had serious complications that we would have spent precious time trying to figure out the problem before working on the solution.
I could just puke thinking about it.
I know ... I can't let my head go down that road. All we can do now is wait until we get into see the pediatrician and go from there. But in the mean time I can hold my little boy just a little tighter every night and give him an extra thousand kisses a day, just for good measure.
I guess this is just part of being a mother... the not so good part: worrying!
BUT, since I am NOT worrying, you don't have to either (Mom B & Mom C), and I will do my best to keep you posted as our next doctor's visits take place.
For now... just in case you aren't convinced E is doing fine, here's some proof!
Wednesday, we were at CHEO for the afternoon as E had to have an ultrasound of his kidneys and today it was a visit to his family doctor for his 6 month check-up and shots.
Back in February when we were referred to a pediatrician for E's weight-gain issues... the ped. ordered an ultrasound of the kidneys as I had mentioned in my patient history that all of my pre-natal ultrasounds showed cysts on the right kidney of the baby.
Since no one had followed up on this post-delivery, she felt it was a good idea to have it checked just so we would know everything is okay.
So... three months later we got in to the children's hospital and the ultrasound was completed. (Just entering the doors of CHEO you realize how lucky you are to have a happy, healthy baby, it broke my heart to see some of the children in the halls - we are so blessed to have a children's hospital near by).
Our appointment was at 2:15 pm yesterday, and then coincidentally E was to see his family doctor today at 3:15 pm (as his 6 month appointment was pushed back a few times due to scheduling conflicts with the doctor's office).
The good news from today's appointment with the family doctor is that E is up to a whopping 16 lbs 3 ozs and 27.5 inches... which puts him at the 10th percentile on the holy graph... he no longer is taking up the bottom rung on the ladder, and this was very pleasing to me. I was not surprised to see he has gained a whole kilo since his last visit, as he has taken a real liking to solids.
However... the good news quickly came to a halt when the family doctor surprised me with the results of yesterday's ultrasound (we were told they would take a week). As it turns out, the news is not good (which is most likely why the results were so quick).
E has a non-functioning right kidney... meaning he is only operating on one good kidney - the left. The right kidney is not even really a kidney... its mostly a mass of cysts making up the kidney.
Enter look of shock and fear on my face as the doctor is trying to explain this to me.
Of course there is some 26 letter medical name for it that I can not for the life of me even remember how it sounds (and being the good mother I am, I didn't even ask for him to write it down for me).
The upside is that we really only need one good kidney to do the work... the second one is a bonus (as it was explained to me). Obviously E is thriving and doing fine with one, but its the longer term affects of this kidney that are worrisome.
Does the defunct kidney need to be removed or will it shrink up to nothing as he grows older? Will the cysts attach themselves to the good kidney or other major organs? Or could the defunct kidney start shedding over time causing other medical problems for him down the road? The possibilities (in my mind) are endless at this point.
The immediate reaction of the doctor is 'not to panic' - too late. Although I am doing my best to remain calm (I only shed a few quick tears on the drive home before I told myself not to freak out until we know more - and I am sticking to that pep talk). As quick as the doc received the results of the ultrasound, he was even quicker to assure me that we would be going back to the pediatrician who will then most likely refer us to a specialist. His main concern is blood pressure, as apparently your right kidney controls your blood pressure, so without it, there must be some repercussions, but of course we won't know anything until we talk to the pediatrician/specialist.
I keep trying to put this into perspective... that its not life-threatening at this point, and that we have caught this issue very early which means time is on our side to address it. However, I keep playing the scenario over in my head, that if I had never mentioned the cysts from the pre-natal ultrasound, and if the pediatrician had just breezed over it (like my family doctor would have), in 10 or 15 or 20 years, E may have had serious complications that we would have spent precious time trying to figure out the problem before working on the solution.
I could just puke thinking about it.
I know ... I can't let my head go down that road. All we can do now is wait until we get into see the pediatrician and go from there. But in the mean time I can hold my little boy just a little tighter every night and give him an extra thousand kisses a day, just for good measure.
I guess this is just part of being a mother... the not so good part: worrying!
BUT, since I am NOT worrying, you don't have to either (Mom B & Mom C), and I will do my best to keep you posted as our next doctor's visits take place.
For now... just in case you aren't convinced E is doing fine, here's some proof!
Labels: Emery, motherhood
posted by SC at 3:54 PM
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