Anna-Grace Update

I took Anna-Grace yesterday to have her Renal Ultrasound and VCUG Tests done to see what if anything was causing her repeat bladder infections.

Her Renal Ultrasound came back great! Her kidneys looked good and they saw no abnormalities. She did amazing, she laughed the whole time and told the ultrasonographer that she was tickling her, and kept asking her if she could see the chicken nuggets in her belly!

After we were done there we then headed to another room to have the VCUG test done. This one was a lot harder for the both of us. They made me take her clothes off and lay her on an x-ray table. They brought in a lady who was equipped with toys and games to keep Anna-Grace distracted and while she was distracting her and I was helping keep her still they cleaned her up and inserted a catheter. She cried for only 2 seconds and went right back to playing with her toys. The doctor came in a few minutes later and they began filling the catheter with the dye and started taking pictures. She did great through this process. She laid very still and when the doctor needed her to roll to either side she did just like he asked. All of the nurses and the doctor were raving about how great she was to only be 2 years old.

The next part was the hardest. After they were finished taking pictures they took the catheter out and wanted Anna-Grace to go potty so they could take more pictures as she was emptying her bladder. This is when the crying started. She kept saying "Mommy I can't pee-pee on the table I have to pee-pee in the potty"! She kept crying wanting me to pick her up, she would NOT go tot he bathroom on that table. The nurse even filled a thing up with warm water and poured it over her and she still would not go. Finally the nurse went and got a small bed pan and I told Anna-Grace it was a baby potty and that she could go in that and the second they put it under her she went to the bathroom! I was so proud of her being so brave and couldn't have asked for her to be any better than she was. Some days I think she is stronger than I am.

The doctors office was closed so I asked the Radiologist if he could share with me what if anything he found and he said that he did see where she was suffering from Stage 3 Vesicoureteral reflux. Which means that her bladder is allowing urine to flow back up into her kidneys causing bacteria to get into them, which is causing her repeat bladder infections. He said there are 3 options 1- is to closely monitor her and see if she outgrows it, 2- is to keep her on a constant round of antibiotics (though this option worries me and Chris a little bit that she might develop immunities to the antibiotics and continue to get infections that could damage her kidneys)and 3- is to refer us to a urologist and see if they want to perform a surgical procedure on her to fix the problem. From what research I have done online it seems that they only do this in Stage 4 or 5 cases so I am hoping this is not the route we have to go.

The good thing the radiologist did say yesterday is that the infections she has had so far have not done any damage to her kidneys, so it’s a good thing they went ahead and sent us for these tests before it got too bad.

Chris will be taking her to the Ped's office on Thursday to follow up with the doctor and put a plan of action in place, so I will update again when we know more. For now just make sure to say a little prayer for her!