the UTI mystery: part 1

October 15

Since Makenzie has been potty trained she has had several urinary tract infections. It is so sad. I know how they feel and what she's experiencing and it isn't fun. After the third one, where we had to take Makenzie to urgent care, our doctor wanted to look into doing more to figure out what was going on. During our follow up visit with our doctor, they decided to send Makenzie in for an ultrasound.

Watching the movie while waiting to see Dr. Lewis.

She loves seeing Dr. Lewis!

So she's usually really good at the doctor office.

Not sure Dr. Lewis likes seeing us so often though :)

Makenzie had to pee in a cup, which she actually likes doing and is pretty good at now. She also told the nurse that Dr. Lewis was going to have to look at her bum. I don't think the nurse thought that was funny and responded with, "no I don't think so." Makenzie just knew she was there because her bum had hurt!

There were traces of white blood cells in Makenzie's urine, 

so they sent it out for a culture.

It ended up being clear.

The UTI was gone! Yay!

October 19

Makenzie was scheduled at Kosair's Children's Medical Center on Brownsboro for her ultrasound. I had heard it was a fantastic hospital and it certainly was. Mitch was able to go with us and a friend watched Alex for us. I was told to make sure Makenzie had plenty of fluids before because she needed a full bladder. About an hour before we left I started having her drink a lot of water. When I say a lot, it was about 20 ounces. She had to pee before we left, which I thought was fine because she was still drinking and I figured her bladder would fill back up. When we were waiting at the hospital she had to go again. She really had to go, so Mitch took her. One of the nurses gave Makenzie some more water (2-12 ounce bottles) to drink before the ultrasound. She drank a whole one, plus some of the second. She was complaining she had to go again, but this time we told her to hold it.

The ultrasound tech was awesome. She was so sweet to Makenzie and really kept her entertained. She told Makenzie that she was looking for frogs in her belly. She started out by looking at the kidneys from the side and the back. Mitch was watching the screen and asked if she was looking at the renal pelvis. The tech showed him what part was the renal pelvis and then continued to explain what was on the screen. She then stopped and said, "please let me know if I'm insulting your intelligence. Are you a physician?" Mitch then explained he was a 4th year med student and had seen ultrasound results before, but never the ultrasound being done. The tech was really nice and continued to talk to Mitch about everything.

After looking at the right kidney, she moved onto the bladder and she discovered that Makenzie had a REALLY full bladder. She was amazed at how full it was and that Makenzie was laying still and not complaining. She measured the contents and then had Makenzie go to the bathroom. As Makenzie was emptying her bladder, I couldn't help but laugh. She was peeing for like 30 seconds straight! Her bladder was definitely full. The tech than asked if Makenzie holds it for a long time all the time. We explained that she didn't. She usually needs to go with the smallest urge to go. The tech than measured the contents after Makenzie went. There was residual amount of 27 cc. There can be a little bit left and that is normal.

The tech than looked at Makenzie's left kidney (which looked different than the right, but I didn't really know what I was looking at). When she was finished she told Makenzie that there weren't any frogs in her belly. She then took the results to the radiologist at the hospital. Makenzie did great! I think she actually liked having the ultrasound.

Hanging out while we waited!

We were originally told that the radiologist would look over everything and send the results to our pediatrician. They would then contact us to let us know the results. When the tech returned the radiologist actually came with her. She explained that Makenzie actually had a duplicate kidney on the right side (meaning she has two kidneys). She said each kidney had a ureter connecting to the bladder. What usually happens with duplicate kidneys is that one ureter will obstruct at the top causing the other to dilate at the bottom. They could not see that with Makenzie. She said everything looked as if it was functioning normally.

While we chatted with the radiologist, the tech took Makenzie to get a balloon and a treat (a red slushie). Makenzie actually really liked being at the hospital and has talked about the little kid's hospital a lot since. 

The radiologist actually has a daughter in her 3rd year of med school at U of L, so she talked to Mitch about her and also what he was planning on going into. I think the radiologist decided to talk to us because they thought maybe he knew what he saw on the ultrasound. Whether it was that, or that she wanted to see if Mitch knew her daughter, I'm glad she told us.

When we got home, I asked Mitch if this is something to worry about. He said not necessarily, it's something that just happens during development. I figured I wouldn't worry until I was told there was something to worry about. We still just needed to wait to see what our doctor wanted to do next! I'm just hoping we can get the UTI's to stop!