Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Appointment Scheduled with Children's


We saw Nolan's primary care physician today and talked with her about the urethral blockage.

We didn't have to ask for a referral to Children's, because she recommended it. The likeliest cause of the problem is posterior urethral valves (PUV), so we will be consulting with the pediatric urologist to confirm the cause and to treat the problem before it becomes a real problem. PUV is the leading cause of renal failure in children. Finding the blockage accidentally may well be the luckiest thing that ever happened in Nolan's life. We may be able to prevent permanent damage to his kidneys and bladder by treating this early.

Many kids with PUV are diagnosed prenatally, but others (with milder valves) aren't found until they are older. Sometimes, the only symptom is failure to thrive. The definitive test is a VCUG, which we can't do with Nolan (already tried that one)! The next step will likely involve a scoping procedure to visualize the blockage, under sedation.

As a side note, Nolan still has his rash and low-grade fever (we're over three weeks with it now), but seems to be acting fine so we're all assuming it is a persistent little virus that doesn't want to go away. He's actually eating a little better than typical, so that is encouraging.

We have our consult with the pediatric urologist on April 30, so we can enjoy our trip to California knowing that our little guy is going to be taken care of!

5 comments:

Herding Grasshoppers said...

Yea! Glad you have a direction to go,

Julie

Anonymous said...

That sounds great Leah. My heart just skipped a beat with reading this post. I'm so glad you guys found out! Nolan is one tough little guy!

milesmom said...

Where are you going in California? We're in the Silicon Valley.
Glad you were able to get an answer and probable cause about this.
-Susan

leah said...

We're in Ventura County at the moment. Sort of on a "blog-cation," lol. Just got back from Disney and we're enjoying the sun and the beach for the moment. Two weeks of sunny bliss!

Ericka said...

sounds like fun Leah! enjoy your vacation!