A Bit About the Bean

This summer-lovin', pink nail polish-wearin', tractor-drivin' little gal has had quite the year so far.

I think I mentioned back in February when we were potty training her that we thought she had developed an infection.  The urinalysis came back clean at that point, but the doctor said there was blood in her urine.

Then in April when she went to the doctor (a PA this time) for Hand Foot Mouth they ran a urinalysis again.  Same thing--no infection but blood in her urine.

Then in May she started having a lot of accidents one weekend.  Certain that it must be a UTI this time, we took her back to the doctor.  Same thing--no infection but blood in her urine.

Thankfully she saw her real doctor this time (a fantastic pediatrician, I might add.  We really lucked out.)  She agreed that something else was going on.  Because her urine cultures kept growing out multiple colonies--a clear indication of contamination (I believe it is nearly impossible to do a clean catch on a 2-year old so I'm not sure how to avoid this one)--Bean hadn't been put on antibiotics up to this point.  It was suggested that we do one round of antibiotics to see if this somehow really was just a bizarre bladder infection.

We endured two weeks of the not so fun side-effects of antibiotics. 

I believe it was at this point that I recalled thinking earlier this year, "Wow, we're really lucky that Bean is such a healthy kid because we've rarely had to take her into her doctor except for well visits."  I regretted thinking this at that point.

After her course of antibiotics had cleared we took the Bean back in for another urinalysis.  Might I add that Bean thinks it's perfectly normal to pee in a cup now.

Same thing--no infection but blood in her urine.

Bean's doctor set up an appointment at Primary Children's (Riverton, thankfully) for her to get an ultrasound done on her kidneys and a Voiding Cystourethrogram (or VCUG.)  We always have to pep talk Bean whenever she's going in for something new.  I told her that we were going to get pictures taken of her kidneys.  Then I showed her some pictures of kidneys and told her where they and her bladder were.  She seemed fascinated when I told her that she had two, her Grandpa J. had 3, but that daddy only had one!

The morning of the appointment came and we headed over to the hospital.  That place is amazing!  I never had to go to Primary Children's when I was a kid but I can only imagine how it would look through the eyes of a two-year old.  (Even S was able to play video games whiel we were waiting!)  She got right to work at the art table making a project which wasn't really a good thing because she started to cry when they called her name to walk back and she had to leave the fun stuff behind.

The ultrasound went smoothly and thankfully everything looked fine with her kidneys.  They even had a TV in there for her to watch Disney on (Brilliant!) while they were doing the ultrasound.

The VCUG went well up until they brought the X-Ray down on top of her.  The procedure involves inserting a cathetar, filling her bladder up with a contrast material and checking to see what the flow pattern of the urine is.  We figured that the cathetar would be the hard part but she hardly even wimpered.  It never occurred to me that the X-Ray machine would scare her, but when they dropped it down she started screaming.  I was SO GRATEFUL that S had taken the day off.  I had to go behind a wall so I couldn't be out there with her.  I'm glad her dad was able to be there to comfort her.  At one point they had to restrain her legs.  She just kept saying, "All done, go home please."  It was the most heartbreaking thing I've ever had to hear.  I couldn't wait for them to be done so I could go back out with her.

It was all worth it though because we finally figured out what was wrong.  She has urinary reflux (you can read more about it here.)  Basically her urine is backflowing into her left kidney.  They commonly grade this condition a 1-5.  1 meaning they never do anything.  2-3 meaning they monitor it.  4-5 meaning immediate surgery.  Bean's is at a 2 (phew!)

So the plan now is to put her on a prophylactic (aka preventative) antibiotic--she is more susceptible to infections--for the next year and to repeat the VCUG.  If she hasn't outgrown it, which most kids generally do, then we will go from there.

But at least we are not scheduling a surgery for the same time I have a baby.

I told her that we wouldn't have to go in again and do that test for a "very long time" to which she responded, "Don't do it again ever!"  Poor kid.