Luke's Day of Doctors

So, as most know, Luke was born with a condition called Kidney Reflux. In short, when his bladder contracts for him to pee he gets pee going out of the body and back up to his kidneys.

There are 5 stages to this condition. Stages go as follows- 1) some urine goes back towards the kidneys, 2) a lot of urine goes back towards the kidneys, 3) urine goes all the way back to the kidneys but not into them, 4) urine goes into the kidneys but not much pressure and 5) urine into the kidneys with pressure that damages the kidneys. If by chance you are in stage 5, the likely action is to have corrective surgery. Anything less, the Doc's hope that you out grow the condition prior to any infections or by age 5. If infection or age 5 hit first then its off to corrective surgery (more or less.)

We found out Luke had something wrong prior to birth due to enlarged kidneys. After he was born, they did some tests and found out what his condition was. Luke was at stage 3 on his right side and at stage 4 on his left side. Since then he has been on oral antibiotics daily to protect him from kidney infections (which can lead to permanent kidney scarring.)

Well, today was his second test. The day started with a trip into the ultrasound so that they could get a good picture of the development of his kidneys. Luke was a total trooper. He layed on the table motionless for about 15 minutes while the tech scanned his little back, side and tummy. End result of the scan - Luke's left kidney is smaller than the right which indicates that it is not developing as fast due to the stage 4 reflux. The right side is as it should be in any child. Proper growth, and blood flow.

Second, it was into the X-ray room. This is where the trouble began. In this test, what they want to do is watch Luke as he is peeing. How can you do that? Well, they catheterize him and fill his bladder with a die so that they can shoot photos once he starts to pee. This did not go to well. First they could not get the cath in because the muscle at the bladder would not release. So after about 5 mins of pushing they gave up and said they would need to find a different style cath. So for about the next hr Luke was just walking around in pain, because he wanted to pee but it was too uncomfortable. Finally, they got the right cath from another hospital(Shriners). Lay down and lets try this again. Tears and screams again but after a couple mins they got it to pass. Fill up the old bladder reverse and we are in business. Once he starts to pee he actually will pee the cath out and then the Radiologist starts shooting photos. Just like a regular photo shoot, it was turn him-pose, flip him-pose, on his back-pose, again on his side-pose all while he is peeing all over the place. Talk about loosing your dignity!

So the good news from this is that Luke now has stage 2/3 reflux on his left side and HURRAY no reflux on his right side. God is Good! It has self corrected on the right side!

Now it's off to see the specialist. Luke is drained, no pun intended. He falls asleep in the 1 block drive we have to get there. Once we finally get in to see the Doc, he tells us that he is very pleased with Luke's progress. His statement was that usually this appointment has discussions of surgery and Luke's outcome was much better. He upped Luke's antibiotic due to his size (he is the same weight as Cole) but the great news is that we only need to give it to him every other day now.

It was a great day in terms of Luke's condition. He has made progress and maybe by this time next year we can report that the reflux is completely gone. So, until next August... thank you for your prayers.