Kenzie's Kidneys

So some of you know about the problems Kenzie's had with her kidneys over the last few years. The last episode was by far the worst. On January 4Th she woke up with a fever over 105. I of course freaked out and was really upset. We took her into the InstaCare, they did a urine analysis and discovered she had another kidney infection. She's had so many of these that we decided it was time to demand to see a urologist. But first because we had just moved here and didn't have a pediatrician for the girls yet to give us a referral to the urologist, we had to find one and get her into her to get the referral. Luckily we got a great recommendation from on old family friend who has 9 kids and takes her kids to the same doctor. We got her right in, and the doctor was shocked that no one had given Kenzie a referral before after she saw Kenzie's history of problems. She gave us the referral but told me call right away because it could take up to 8 weeks to get her into the specialist. Luck was on her side though and she got in January 20Th. They did a VCUG (I forgot what it stands for) and a ultra sound. The VCUG was a hard test for her and for me! They were suppose to sedate her, but the medication they gave her just made her loopy, you can tell in a few of the pictures. They told me even though she wasn't asleep, she still wouldn't remember anything because of the medicine. They were wrong! We got her into the X-ray room and onto the table and she was happy as a clam to look at the toys a nurse was holding up her her to look at. Then the radiologist started to place the catheter. We both started crying. She was so upset that I was letting him do that to her and she kept trying to pull the thing catheter out with her toes. Me and another nurse had to hold her top half down and they called another nurse to hold her feet so she couldn't use her toes. Eventually they got all the dye in her bladder got the pictures they needed and pulled the awful thing out and let her pee (she started screaming that she had to pee about half way through them getting the dye into her bladder, apparently her bladder is quite large for her age and they had to use 2 bags of dye on her instead of 1, lesson learned, don't let your child stretch the walls of their bladder by holding their pee too long). After all that the test results were negative, she doesn't have kidney reflux (that's when your urine goes from your bladder back into your kidneys, it's only suppose to go from your kidney to your bladder. They thought that might the cause of all the infections). The ultra sound wasn't bad, she thought it was funny that the lady kept tickling her with the magic wand and looking at her insides. They found there that her left kidney was about 1/2 inch bigger than her right, which I guess is significant for kidneys. They thought that it may be left over inflammation from the most recent infection so they scheduled a repeat 6 weeks later.

Six weeks later Kenzie and I headed back to Primary Children's Hospital, this time with Ashley in tow. We had the ultra sound repeated and found that it was inflammation before. Her kidneys were just about the same size again, though big for her age. I was told that her kidneys being big wasn't really a problem and that sometimes (just like other body parts like feet) the kidneys grew before the rest of the body but the body would eventually catch up and everything would be in proportion again.

So after all that we still don't know what's causing all the problems. We have her on a sulfur antibiotic for 6 months. The doctors are hoping that this will get her body out of the habit of infections and she will be infection free for the rest of her life. Hopefully it works. It's so hard to see your little girl be so sick and then go through so many tests and doctors. She's been a trouper though. She just is very careful to ask which doctor we're going to before we go and if she has to have another catheter (she doesn't want to be taken to "the wrong doctor" again). She's constantly telling anyone who will listen to her that catheters are "awful and mean to me" and hurt really bad (she remembers every minute of her ordeal, unfortunately). Poor baby, I hope she doesn't have to have one again any time soon, I don't think I could handle it.