Mills Visits the Urologist

Today, I took Mills to the pediatric urologist. I have not mentioned this before, but at my 20 week ultrasound, the ultrasound tech thought that she saw a little bit of dilation in his kidneys. Mills was moving around so much that she couldn't get a good view of them, so just for a recheck, another ultrasound was performed at 28weeks gestation. It was confirmed that Mills' kidneys were a bit dilated, but it was VERY minimal. Of course I was a little worried, but when I talked to my OB, Dr. Stern, he assured me that this was a very common condition in male babies, and that his son had it. "It went away as soon as he tee-teed the first time outside the womb," he told me. He wasn't at all concerned about us seeing a specialist and told us that we should not be worried about it, but we could just watch it to see if it would eventually go away. He told us that most of the time when it is as minimal as Mills', babies will just outgrow it. This condition, "hydronephrosis," is the swelling of the kidneys due to back up of urine flow. Dr. S also said to tell our pediatrician about it so that we could have an ultrasound done after Mills' birth, just for a re-check. At 36 weeks gestation, another ultrasound was performed, and it was then when we saw that his right kidney had completely gone normal (yay!), and the left one still had a tiny bit of "fullness." The ultrasound tech told us that it wasn't much at all, and that everything was working just as it should. She also told us that he would be just fine and not to worry. So, I haven't at all been overly concerned about it. Mills is functioning just fine, believe me he tee-tees quite well! LOL In October, Dr. Owen, our pediatrician wanted us to go to Methodist G'town, for another check to see if the hydronephrosis was still present after birth. So, we went for another ultrasound. Mills did great! He was so funny, he just layed there as the tech put that warm gel on him and scanned his kidneys. He even smiled at her while she was doing it. She detected a small amount of dilation in his left kidney still, and the right one was still normal. She too told us that everything looked great and that they see this all of the time, but most babies have worse cases of it. "I would say that Mills' barely has hydro,"she told us. "I'm sure he'll eventually outgrow it." So after the results were sent back to our pediatrician, he wanted us to see a pediatric urologist just to make sure that the hydronephrosis, was "just" hydronephrosis and not being caused by PUV- posterior urethral valves. Our visit today was great. I was very impressed. Mills did wonderful during the ultrasound. It was confirmed that he still has a tiny bit of dilation, but even less than the last ultrasound. He told me that he had less than 1cm of back up and that he was not at all concerned. He doesn't even want to see Mills again until he is a year old. I could tell that he didn't think it was a "big deal," and that's exactly what I wanted! :) So, we will return to him next August for a follow up ultrasound, unless I suspect a problem, and if the hydro is the same or better, or if it is completely gone, he will be released from the urologist! So, we are very happy about our good report!!!