Saturday, October 25, 2014

Kidney Ultrasound Checkup

This past week we saw our great urologist for an ultrasound of Audrey's kidneys to check on their functioning. She cried during the ultrasound, but the tech was nice enough to let me sit on the bed next to the machine and hold her doing the scan through her back instead of her abdomen, which they've never offered before. Sure would have been a nice alternative to holding her down on the bed all those other times! She was able to be distracted by the screens a few times but was otherwise understandably upset. I was able to briefly comfort her with nursing, which I found amusing as I was sitting about 6 inches from the ultrasound tech and I'm sure she doesn't see many nursing toddlers!

Right after the ultrasound we had the consultation with our urologist, Dr. Jane Lewis. Everything is looking great! Her kidneys are actually measuring smaller than the last ultrasound 6 months ago, but the urologist said that's probably either due to an error in the previous measurement and/or her right kidney now has less hydronephrosis (swelling inside the kidney due to a build up of urine). They are measuring within the normal range for her age, however we will know more at her next ultrasound in 6 months.

Dr. Lewis also said there that we won't know how her kidneys, especially the right one, will function over her lifetime. She thinks it will be fine for her childhood but we just have to wait and see how it goes. She did give us some good ideas on how to help her kidneys, such as avoiding ibuprofen and keeping her well hydrated.

Dr Lewis reminded us that if Audrey ever gets another UTI we need to let her know right away. And I found out a good way to monitor her kidney function is to check her blood pressure since the kidneys filter the blood. The nurse attempted to get her blood pressure reading but Audrey was too upset for it to be accurate. Hopefully we can get an accurate one at her 2 year check up.

On a side note, I was excited to see her weight at 23 lbs 9 oz so she's staying at about the 35th percentile, which was where she was from birth to 6 months. Her length indicates she shrunk but we're pretty sure it was because she was squirming and hunching down from the measuring bar they had her stand next to. This has happened before, as you can see in the second chart below.


Her weight chart (WHO chart for girls) where you can see the slower gain from 6-9 months, the drastic loss by 12 months, the rapid weight gain (with some loss around 13-14 months due to her inability to keep down various formulas) that peaks with her near the 85th percentile-WAY too high for her! Some weight loss after the NG tube was taken out and then she settled back into a pattern at about the 35th percentile.

This chart is her length (WHO chart for girls) where you can see she "shrunk" from the last appointment. She may have actually shrunk some after being so malnourished, as you can see in the lengths from 12-16 months, but I'm fairly confident she is growing in height now. I measured her myself a couple times at home and I got 32.5 inches which would put her right on track. We'll see if we can get a more accurate measurement at her 2 year check up next month.