After Vi's UTI, we had some test taken to make sure her bladder and kidney's are working properly. The first test was just a ultrasound to look at her kidney's. The test came back clear and it looks like no damage was done from the UTI. The second test was a little more evasive. It involved inserting a catheter, filling her bladder with x-ray dye, then taking an x-ray to see if the dye went into her kidney's. As you can imagine, this was unpleasant for everyone involved!
We found out she does have reflux in both her kidney's (also known as VUR). Which basically means she was born with a faulty valve at the point where the ureter connects into the bladder. In a normal urinary tract, the ureter joins the bladder and then forms a long tunnel through the muscular tissue of the bladder. If this tunnel is long enough, it serves as an effective one-way valve. In children with reflux, this tunnel can be too short to work properly as a valve and this urine may flow in both directions.
The good news is, most children outgrow VUR by the age of 5. Violet's is a mild case so the doctor is confident she will outgrow it within a year. But o prevent another UTI, she has to be on a low dose antibiotic until she outgrows it. Though I am not thrilled about putting her on more meds (she is already on Zantac for acid reflux...sheesh she is refluxing all over the place!), it is worth it to protect those little kidney's of hers. We will get to do that fun x-ray test again in a year to see if she has outgrown it.
Has anyone else had a child with this? If so, did you have to do the low dose antibiotic?
4 comments:
None of mine have had this, but my friend's baby had this. He was on antibiotics for a long while. Unfortunately, his was a worse case, so he ended up having surgery (but he pulled through like a champ). If you want me to put you in touch with her, email me (alibirdvigue (at) gmail (dot) com). Good luck--it's so rough when your baby has a health issue, I know!! You can do it!
This sounds pretty scary. Glad the prognosis is that she will grow out of it relatively quickly!
Oh that is no fun! Poor little girl. I hope the meds work and that all be well.
Hey, guess who is going to DisneyWorld next week? This girl. Holla! I just thought I would share since I know you would appreciate it ;)
OOOhhhh so sorry to hear that! Actually, Addilyn had that. I just had a feeling that she had a UTI. Sure enough! So we ended up doing all of the same tests you have done. NOT FUN! Luckily, she her valves were working well enough that she didn't need the antibiotic and she out grew it.
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