Megan's Medical Update

We spent two days in Indy this week. We got an Indianapolis Zoo pass so that while Megan and I were at the clinic having tests done, the rest could enjoy the animals. But, since Megan and I didn't want to miss out, we came down a day early and spent the afternoon at the zoo, the evening swimming*, and then got up for the medical stuff the next morning.

Megan was a trooper! She was a little nervous, but did great through everything. Thankfully, there were no needles involved! She was a happy drunk when they gave her the medicine for the VCUG (if you don't know what that is, you don't need to; if you're super curious, email me and I'll share the details). After all the tests were done and said, we headed over to see Dr. Cain, the pediatric urologist.

He didn't have great news for us. It seems that one side is worse, the other still appears problematic. And, this year's tests show that there is probably damage done to one of the kidneys (could be from birth on, but most likely not since she's been on prophylactic antibiotics this past year). He said that she now has a 15% chance of growing out of this. And, he wants to get a scan to test her renal function. If the kidney(s) is(are) looking bad, then he'd do surgery pretty much right away. Otherwise, he'd be OK with watchful waiting, meaning we could put off surgery to see if she might grow out of it.

So, we will be getting a lot of mileage out of that zoo pass! And, we're hoping that Megan's kidneys are fine and she'll outgrow this so we won't have to have surgery.

I don't know which way they'll go in to do the surgery (laproscopic or through the back), but a description of one of the possible surgeries is below:

Surgical Correction
Correction of reflux (called ureteral reimplantation or ureteroneocystostomy) is recommended for high grades of reflux (because they are unlikely to resolve by themselves), for reflux that fails to resolve on its own despite monitoring over several years, and for patients with breakthrough infections.

The traditional surgical approaches have high degrees of success and usually involve opening the bladder and creating a new, longer tunnel for the ureter to pass through the bladder wall. If the ureter is very wide due to high grade reflux, it may need to be narrowed to make a successful flap valve with at least a 4:1 ratio of tunnel length to ureter width.

So, we'll be heading back to Indy in a few weeks (depending on when they have time available). Thankfully, Megan is totally unfazed by all of this. She's good with doing these things (maybe it's because she gets my undivided attention?) She wasn't even all that sad that she didn't get a second day at the zoo (until she saw pictures and then she asked if we could go back).

Walking through Riley Hospital was humbling and gratitude-inspiring. Yeah, Megan isn't perfect and might have to have surgery, but she can walk, talk and breath on her own, unlike many of the little children I saw being carried, wheeled, or pulled in wagons by patient and loving parents and caregivers. My heart went out to them, and my prayers are with them. And, my heart is lifted in gratitude for the four beautiful blessings we have!

I'm also very grateful for good medical insurance.

*Pictures forthcoming! I might just have to put together a slideshow of the favorites, because between Becky and I, we had six cameras (SLR, digital, pocket digital, iphone, digital, pocket digital)! Oh, and I'm becoming interested in an SLR after using her camera. Bulky? yes! Fast pics? YES! Hmmm.... well, not in the budget just yet.