Hydronephrosis

Re: Hydronephrosis

• BabyBebe1

  July 2011

  Yes. But in my DS's case (my first son), the dilation ended up being a result of PUV, which is very rare and required surgery. My son will require further surgery to reshape his bladder (which was also impacted) and fix his ureters, which also dilated. He also has no function to one of his kidneys and will have it removed. There are many, many less serious causes/diagnoses for hydronephrosis so my son is in the very small minority and don't let it scare you. I have done lots of research on kidney issues as a result of everything we have been through and know that very often hydronephrosis is outgrown in boys and has no lasting impact. Hopefully that will be the case for your DS.

  Is the test you are having in a few weeks a VCUG? That allows them to see what is going on in the renal system by flushing the system with dye and watching what happens to it. It also will show what grade reflux he may have. In my son's case, it is grade 5 on a scale of 1-5 so know it can be much more minor than his. If that is the test they are doing, it wasn't that bad when he was really young. They put a catheter in, which isn't pleasant, but only takes a second and then the discomfort is over. I also was able to stay with him the whole time and comfort him.

  We also are on the antibiotics to ward off infection - if they are hard to give, hang in there, it gets easier.  

  Feel free to PM me. Hang in there, I know it stinks to have to deal with this. 

  

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• megan.muffin member

  July 2011

  ME! I'm in the exact same boat! He had the ultrasound done when he was born and it was still there so we went in for more tests last week. If your doctor orders the same tests as mine I'll warn you, it's horrible. The ultrasound was fine but he had to get a VCUG and and he screamed through the catheter. It was heartbreaking to have him screaming and me just having to leave him on the table and not be able to console him. I had to help hold him down and he looked at me with the saddest eyes. We took our results to the children's hospital at Standford and they told us there is a scale of 0-4, 0 being you don't have any problems and 4 being it's as bad as it gets. His right kidney is a 1 and his left is a 2. They said since it was still fairly mild we could stop the preventative antibiotics, and for the first year ultrasounds every 3 months, the second year ultrasounds every 6 months and then ultrasounds every year after that until it either completely goes away or he's a teenager and says he doesn't want to go anymore.  He hasn't had any problems peeing and doesn't seem uncomfortable at all. I'm guessing if he is peeing normal and not in pain your results will probably the same as ours and they just keep an eye on it
  

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• sarahseita

  July 2011

  Thank you so much for your comments, it explained a few things I wasn't sure about.

  I think it's the VCUG we have to go in for. I'm in Canada so free health care (yay) but everything takes longer to happen (sigh). 

   So for we seem to be symptom free but now every time he cries and I'm not sure why (when he's fed and clean) I start to worry.

  Thanks for the encouragement and I hope your LO are all doing well too. 
  

  

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• lyndsaynicole member

  July 2011

  sarahseita:

  So DS was diagnosed with hydronephrosis ( dilation of the kidney) when I was pregnant. They told me that in most cases the condition fixes itself by birth. We just had to have an ultrasound on his belly when he was born. We got the results this week and it hasn't fixed itself. So far he hasn't had any symptoms, he's peeing normal and doesn't seem to be in any pain. Our doctor has put him on antibiotics as a preventative measure (it can cause kidney or urinary tract infections). We have another, more extensive test in a few weeks at the children's hospital to look into it. He has to be on the meds until the issue is worked out or they decide it's not affecting him.

  Has anyone else every dealt with this issue? They are sending me more info in the mail about the test but I figured I'd ask you ladies if you've had any experience with hydronephrosis and how it affected your child. 
  

   

  I could've written this myself! This is our situation exactly!! 

  They saw it in my 36 week ultrasound, which I almost wasn't even going to have. Everyone told us it was very mild and most likely will resolve itself, etc. They did an ultrasound at the hospital on him a couple days after he was born and it was basically the same. 

  So now they have us dealing with this pediatric urologist at a childrens hospital an hour away from us. She hasn't seen my son at all, but they have us on antibiotics as a preventative (which believe me, I questioned) and we have an appointment for a ultrasound and VCUG on August 19th. I've expressed my frustration with our pedi at our 2 month appointment because the pediatric urologists assistant is a B!TCH. Apparently, that's just her. She's not nice to anyone, they've had problems with her before, and she basically doesn't do her job. It took her almost 2 weeks to call me back to schedule this whole thing in the first place. Then she acted like I was an idiot because I didn't know he was "supposed to be" on antibiotics and when I questioned her about it she said, "well, all of our patients are on antibiotics". That's nice. I talked to one of the nurses in their office and she was able to give me a little more information but still nothing useful. I finally felt better after we talked to our pedi and he clarified everything for me. 

  Anyway-so far so good. He pees plenty, and it's the right color and odor....I'm really hoping that when we go, we will see that it has resolved itself or is almost non existent and we can take him off the antibiotics and not worry about it anymore. It's something that has only started showing up more because we have better ultrasound technology now.
  

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