Kidney Check

It's been a good week.... lots of positive things going on in the Mayo household.

We went to Beckett's checkup appointment at Dallas Children's on Monday.  We started by going to the imaging department for a sonogram.  After all of the awful testing that he had done before, this was such a piece of cake.  He pretty much just laid there and sucked on paci.  After that we went up to Urology and met with Dr. Bush.  She came in with a HUGE smile on her face and said his kidneys were growing, he was growing, and she was really happy with his progress.  Even some of the swelling and dilation had decreased.

Let me just repeat that.


She came in with a HUGE smile on her face and said his kidneys were growing, he was growing, and she was really happy with his progress.

Just typing it and reading it makes me teary eyed all over again.  I am SO thankful and SO overjoyed.  She went on to talk about the future and cited some studies done on cases like Beckett's.  Basically the two most precarious times are in the first year of life and during potty training.  She will continue to closely monitor him through potty training (sonograms every six months and such) and then he will be "on his own."  They will look carefully at the kidney growth and his growth.  If he was having complications, then he would not be growing and there would be other issues too.....

Of course, this is all pending that he doesn't get an infection.  If he DOES get an infection, then that will change things.  They will do the DMSA test again (UGH) and determine how bad the damage was.    From there we would decide if and when to do surgery.  She also said multiple times how at any other hospital in the country, he would have already undergone surgery. (And I know that's true from my own research on hospitals and doctors.)  I am incredibly grateful to have him at one of the very best urology departments in the country.  They are very conservative with surgery.

Dr. Bush also said that they have a couple other cases like Beckett's where the patients have not had to have surgery yet.   I was actually surprised that there were only two other cases like B's, given that their department has six doctors and a gajillion patients.  It just goes to show how fortunate we are to have escaped sickness and hospitals... so far.

AND, although it is considered a miracle for a grade 5 patient to outgrow reflux, Dr. Bush said that in his case and given how well he is doing there is a very small possibility that he could outgrow some of the reflux!  Of course, his right kidney will always be smaller and not function fully but STILL.  I was just beaming when I heard that.

Sooo, to sum it up I am a happy momma.  :)