{ kidney update }

{ yay for ultrasounds }

 

Today we spent a good portion of our afternoon at the University of MN Amplatz Children's hospital.  For those new to the blog, Alexander has hydronephrosis in his left kidney.  This basically means that his kidney is retaining fluid because of an obstruction where his kidney and ureter meet.

 

Last time we met with his urologist was back in early July, so it was nice to see her again.  Alex was a perfect patient for both the ultrasound tech, and for his doctor.  His kidney is still large and severely diluted.  However, it's stable.  The kidney continues to still grow on target and Alex is relatively healthy.  He has not had issues with UTI's or kidney infections and besides issues with ear infections, you would never know that my spirited, bold 1 year old had such a problem.  Since the kidney is stable, we'll continue to just monitor it for now and won't have to go back until August.

 

My feelings about this course of treatment have changed.  I haven't always agreed with the "wait and see" approach.  But I can understand why his urologist is hesitant to take Alex into surgery.  Alex having surgery to put a stent in could be argued either way and as for now, Alex has no indicators that his hydronephrosis is getting worse nor are we battling recurrent UTI's.

 

He's happy and healthy and is most likely to turn me grey before I'm 30.  I do worry about the health of that left kidney and what waiting could potentially do to weaken an already weaker kidney.  But I have confidence that this is the right thing for now.