So I promised and update on Alex's kidneys. At the ultrasound that they did when he was a week old they still noted that the right kidney still looked like it had fluid in it so they told me they would refer us to the specialist to see what we needed to do next. No answers, just to wait until we went there to find out what if anything was going on.
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On May 2nd, my last day of maternity leave...(wth?) They FINALLY scheduled a referral appointment for Alex up at UofM. My mom took the day off work to go with me which was pretty awesome of her. We had two appointments first was with the imaging department so that they could take a new ultrasound of both of his kidneys. (I may work at UofM but I've never actually set foot in the new Mott Women & Children's hospital. It was very nice.) The nurse who did the ultrasound was very nice and super friendly. Alex didn't seem to mind his ultrasound at all. Actually in typical Alex fashion he pretty much didn't make a peep all day until he got hungry.
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After the ultrasound they sent us up to our next appointment with the pediatric nephrologist. They asked us a million questions about family history and how Alex had been doing since birth before bringing in the doctor (Dr. Lombel). The doctor started in with more of the same questions before pausing to say "he's fine" and continue on with her questioning. They are 99% sure from the looks of the ultrasound that absolutely nothing is medically wrong with him. (yay!) What they say he has is on his right kidney, it's called Exrarenal Pelvis, where basically the part of his kidney that collects urine before it moves to the bladder (the renal pelvis) is misshaped. Instead of following the typical kidney (bean) shape it is just misshaped outside of the normal bean shape. It is a normal variant in about 10% of the population and is harmless. (My aunt has it so we wonder if its a genetic freak trait that our family carries, the only reason she knows she has it is because she was having kidney issues when she was pregnant so they did some imaging tests on her and found that she had a misshaped kidney but it wasn't the cause of the problem she was having.) They said he should not be at any increase risk of UTI's or kidney stones. The concern was if he had a reflux or obstruction of urine through the ureters which is not the case. They said we don't have to continue to monitor him or his kidneys. The only way we need to go back for additional testing is if Alex starts to develop urinary tract infections.
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She drew us this lovely picture to try and explain it better :) the misshaped part is where it bumps out just a little bit right near the ureter.
Happy to know that it's nothing, really, other than my kid being a little odd. But aren't we all?
On May 2nd, my last day of maternity leave...(wth?) They FINALLY scheduled a referral appointment for Alex up at UofM. My mom took the day off work to go with me which was pretty awesome of her. We had two appointments first was with the imaging department so that they could take a new ultrasound of both of his kidneys. (I may work at UofM but I've never actually set foot in the new Mott Women & Children's hospital. It was very nice.) The nurse who did the ultrasound was very nice and super friendly. Alex didn't seem to mind his ultrasound at all. Actually in typical Alex fashion he pretty much didn't make a peep all day until he got hungry.
After the ultrasound they sent us up to our next appointment with the pediatric nephrologist. They asked us a million questions about family history and how Alex had been doing since birth before bringing in the doctor (Dr. Lombel). The doctor started in with more of the same questions before pausing to say "he's fine" and continue on with her questioning. They are 99% sure from the looks of the ultrasound that absolutely nothing is medically wrong with him. (yay!) What they say he has is on his right kidney, it's called Exrarenal Pelvis, where basically the part of his kidney that collects urine before it moves to the bladder (the renal pelvis) is misshaped. Instead of following the typical kidney (bean) shape it is just misshaped outside of the normal bean shape. It is a normal variant in about 10% of the population and is harmless. (My aunt has it so we wonder if its a genetic freak trait that our family carries, the only reason she knows she has it is because she was having kidney issues when she was pregnant so they did some imaging tests on her and found that she had a misshaped kidney but it wasn't the cause of the problem she was having.) They said he should not be at any increase risk of UTI's or kidney stones. The concern was if he had a reflux or obstruction of urine through the ureters which is not the case. They said we don't have to continue to monitor him or his kidneys. The only way we need to go back for additional testing is if Alex starts to develop urinary tract infections.
Happy to know that it's nothing, really, other than my kid being a little odd. But aren't we all?
