Discouraged.

This morning Spencer had his 4th routine VCUG (or voiding cystourethrogram) to check on his kidneys. Basically they stick a catheter up him, fill his bladder and then watch his kidneys as he pees. (Not a fun procedure for a little boy.) He had one when he was 1 day old, one at 6 months, one at 1 year, and then the one today. For this one they decided to sedate him since he's getting so big and a lot harder to hold down. Even though I was worried about it, I have to say, it was SO much easier this time having him asleep. Totally worth getting up at 5:30am to feed him breakfast because he couldn't eat after 6am until after the procedure at 12pm.

Of course he was screaming bloody murder for about 10 seconds while they put the mask on (which they informed me was cherry scented), then he quickly got quiet and kind of looked around and then in another second he was out.

He woke up easily when they were done and the first words out his mouth were, "All done. Go." The nurse gave him a sucker and turned on some "Dora" cartoons while he continued waking up. After about 15 minutes he was dressed and we were out of there onto visit his urologist.

After looking at the DVD they gave us at the imaging place, Dr. Baseman gave us the bad news.

His left kidney that has hydronephrosis (which is an enlarged kidney due to blockage in the ureter) is twice the size it was in December and some of the padding around the kidney is starting to deteriorate because of the blockage. Plus, his urinary reflux is still a grade 2 in both kidneys (so his urine instead of passing easily through the kidneys into his bladder is getting pushed back up).

The exact words out of the doctor's mouth were "I'm a little concerned about this." NOT something a parent wants to hear from a doctor.

So what do we have to do about it? Spencer has to go back to the hospital in three weeks to get a more in depth radiology test done. If the kidney function is less than 43% (which is very likely) then he'll most likely have to have some kind of surgery to get the blockage removed.

Needless to say, I was a little discouraged as we left the doctor's office, especially since things were looking better at his appointment in December.

However, I will say, I am amazed at the technology we have to determine these kinds of problems. They've known about Spencer's hydronephrosis since his first ultrasound, and his urologist has been carefully monitoring it since his birth two years ago. Kyle and I were talking on the way home and wondering what they did about this kind of problem 100 years ago? Did the people with this same problem just all of the sudden go into kidney failure? It really is amazing and a HUGE blessing. Thank heavens for doctors and technology!