Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Ellas big day

Well, the big day of tests and x-rays came and went yesterday.
She had to do an ultra-sound and a series of x-rays including a VCUG. This is where they catheterize her and inject a dye into her. They x-ray her as they move her all around the x-ray table and while she urinates. The purpose of the procedure is to see if the dye comes right out, like normal, or if some of it makes its way back up and into her kidney, which is why they thought she may have gotten the kidney infection so young.
We got the results today and sure enough, she has Vesicoureteral Reflux. Just a fancy way of saying her body does not do what it should and she is prone to UTI'S.
What do we do with this info? Not much. She will need to be on a low dosage anti-biotic for as long as she has the reflux. Some girls bodies correct themselves as they get older. We will do these tests each year to determine what's going on and if she still has it by age 5 or 6 they will pull her from the anti-biotic and need to surgically correct the problem.
So, there's the update. Thanks for all your support and thoughts while we were trying to figure all this stuff out. Its such a blessing that we found this all out so early to prevent permanent damage to her little body! She was a trooper through it all and despite waking up with a fever and a possible infection, normal from the procedure if you do have Vesicoureteral Reflux, she's hanging in there!




4 comments:

Morph This said...

Oh Jill.. this makes me so sad. I hate to see little kids in hospital gowns. It should be Illegal. Glad you got everything checked out and have some answers.. she is too cute.

Becca said...

oh my goodness! What a trooper! i just could not imagine having to do so many test at such an age!You guys are incredible! i just admire your strength so much!!!

Jamie C. said...

I've been trying to post for a few days, my computer is acting funny. I'm sorry you all had to go through that...how hard for a mother. I hope she's feeling back to herself!

Christine said...

Hi there, I came across your blog and wanted to comment. I have two kids with reflux. My middle son's was mild and he actually grew out of it by the time he was a year old. My younger son is still going through everything since his is grade 4 on one side and 5 on the other. Did they tell you what grade her reflux is? I know how hard these tests can be, we're going for more tests next week and I'm so nervous about it.

Take care

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