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The last of the kidney for a while, I hope.
2005-08-09, 12:21 p.m.

I think the baby is awake, so I may have to make this brief...
We went to the urologist yesterday for Jack. Basically it was more of the same, it was just a "Hi, I'll be you're new doctor for this" session. Jack's got Grade 3 urinary reflux on the right and Grade 4 on the left (on a scale of 1-5, 5 being the worst). He changed our antibiotic to a sulfa drug, which Jack will be on most likely until he's 3 or 4 years old. Grades 1 and 2 reflux are always expected to clear up with time, Grade 3 is a grey area and Grades 4 and 5 usually require surgery eventually, says the doctor. However, for some reason, boys have a tendency to clear up better anyway, even at the higher grades, so maybe there won't be a need for surgery--especially if we can keep him bladder/kidney-infection-free.
Of the surgeries, the first thing they try doesn't sound to be very invasive and is an outpatient procedure. It involves going in with a scope through the urethra into the bladder and injecting a polymer at the base of the ureter to close up the opening a bit, thus preventing reflux. If that doesn't work, then it's open surgery where they have to rebuild the connection from the ureter to the bladder. Hopefully it won't come to that. The good news is that this sounds like the only real health threat associated with this condition is the potential for kidney infection, which then can lead to kidney damage. If we can control that, plus then if the reflux goes away on its own, or even having to have surgery, this SHOULD all be behind us by the time he's kindergarten age.
We go back in a year to this doctor for another kidney ultrasound to check on things.
Okay, times up....

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