Results

Well today we had Jeanine's renal ultrasound and VCUG test at the hospital. She did SO WELL during both tests it was incredible! Praise God she stayed calm and didn't cry very much. The ultrasound went off without a hitch and she flirted with and talked to the nice lady who performed it. Then we waited about 45 minutes for her VCUG...not pleasant. I have to say that if I was the one getting that done to me, I'd have fussed wayyy more than Jeanine did. She was strapped down to the table with her arms papoosed up by her head, it was really weird but somehow comforting to her after a couple minutes. I held her hands and kept her paci in her mouth while she was catheterized, during which she only cried a little, and quite softly, to the delight of her mother. If she'd have screamed at the top of her lungs like she is fully able to do, I think we'd have gotten dozens of doctors and nurses in there wondering if we were kiling her, lol! They tried to start several times but for some reason the catheter didn't work and had a blockage, so they had to take it out and start over with a new one, poor baby! Once they got started it was only about 8 minutes start to finish. They filled up her bladder really full with a dye of sorts that presents contrast in the x-ray.

The more full her bladder got, the more we realized there was a definite problem with her anatomy. Bummer. Valves in the body are only supposed to work one way, pushing everything in the body down and out. Unfortunately Jeanine's ureters quickly filled with dye, along with her left kidney. This isn't supposed to happen at all, no matter how full the bladder is, so this means she has a low/non-functioning valve at the bottom of her ureter into her bladder. Course of action now is to put her on a low dose preventative antibiotic to keep infection away from her kidneys until the problem resolves itself (more likely) or she has surgery to correct it (very unlikely).

Overall the appointment went well and Jeanine did fine, we are just disappointed with the news that she'll have to be on antibiotics for a while. Perhaps that will keep away further ear infections as well though, since they seem to plague my children during the early years. We'll see. Thanks for your prayers that everything would go well, it did!

Waiting for her ultrasound

Playing with the nurse while waiting for the procedure to start