Emily's kidney update

When I was pregnant with Emily they discovered that her left kidney was not developing properly. I had a lot of ultrasounds done to keep an eye on it to make sure it was working but the doctors were never overly concerned since anyone can live with one working kidney. The pediatric urologist believes that there could be two ureters attached to her left kidney. (There's supposed to be one ureter per kidney which takes the urine from the kidney to the bladder.) Fortunately, the doctors know that the lower portion of the kidney is working and producing urine as it should.

Emily recently had a procedure done called a Voiding Cystourethrogram (or VCUG.) Yeah, that's a mouthful! The best way to describe it is to say it is like a fancy specialized X-Ray. The radiologist was looking to see if there was any reflux where the urine goes back into the ureter which can cause urinary tract infections. On a scale of 1 to 5 (5 being the worst) she was rated at a 1. Nothing to be too concerned about. However, the pediatric urologist is not completely satisfied with the tests/procedures they have done because they are limited in what they can tell him. The next step is to do surgery - a cystoscopy - to have a little looksey. (Seriously, who comes up with these names?) If the pediatric urologist finds what he thinks is there then he will go ahead and remove the top portion of Emily's kidney and the second ureter to prevent her from having recurring UTIs.

They had to strap Emily's head, body and legs to a board to keep her from moving during the VCUG. I was able to hold her hands. We all had to wear lead aprons due to the radiation from the machine.

Luckily, the procedure was only 10 minutes long because Emily did not like it one bit. She loves to kick her legs and was so mad that she couldn't move them at all. This picture shows her little ankles crossed. It would have been really cute if my baby hadn't been strapped to what seemed like a torture device.

I have to say that this little girl is such a trooper!! She is so good-natured about everything! She is currently wearing a helmet 23 hours a day, cutting four teeth on the top, taking medicine to keep her from developing a UTI which has now caused her to have thrush in her diaper area. She is the happiest baby. Amazing.