Lots of Doctors!

Dylan certainly tried to make life interesting this past week or so. On Wed. 3/2, we had a doctor's appointment at Boston Children's Hospital. Dylan has an issue with his kidney that was discovered when I had an ultrasound at 37 weeks. They found what they called water on his kidney. To follow up, they do an ultrasound of the baby at about 1 month old once he isn't dehydrated from birth anymore to see if it is still there, and it tends to go away. So we took him in Feb. for the ultrasound at Children's and unfortunately it was still there on him. The dr. deemed it moderate, so that meant we would have to do some follow up tests to figure out what was causing this. The appointment on 3/2 was the first.

We finally got to meet with a urologist who explained exactly what the issue was, which no one had done before. He has what is called hydronephrosis on his left kidney. For some reason, the urine is staying in his kidney instead of completely draining, so the tests are to figure out why. For this one, they were checking to see if he had reflux, which meant the urine was draining, but then coming back up into the kidney. They had to give him a catheter and a dye and then watched to see if the dye was going back up. He did cry a little, but that was mostly because he was hungry, he was a little trooper. Below is a picture of him in his little hospital johnny.



The good news is, he doesn't have reflux. However, the dr. showed us the ultrasounds they had taken last time, and for some reason, the tube from his kidney to his bladder is very swollen. When they showed his right side, you can't even see the tube, when they showed the left, the tube was swollen almost as big as the kidney itself, which meant there is a blockage. So he earned himself a trip back for another test that will include an IV at the end of the month :-( That test will be to see whether his kidney is actually functioning at 100% or if the blockage is causing his kidney to not work properly, which could mean surgery. He is also on amoxicillin until he is 3 months old, and then another antibiotic until he is 9 months old to try and avoid a Urinary Tract Infection, which could be bad for his kidney.

On Thurs 3/3, he started to show signs of a little cold and was congested. We took his temperature each day, but it wasn't anything out of the ordinary. The poor guy slept a lot and just wanted to snuggle. On Sunday 3/6, he was just so quiet and not really himself, and by the end of the day, his head was really warm so we took his temperature. The first time it was 99.8, which was the highest he had been. So we took it again and it was 100.4, which is the temp. the doctors tell you for a newborn you have to call them. We took it 3 more times, and stayed within that range, so we called and they told us it was right on the border, but because of his hydronephrosis, that we had to go to the hospital that night. So Dylan got his first ER visit. Because he was so little, they took him right in. First thing they do is take his temperature, 98.6. What?? So they take it again, 98.6 again. So he now doesn't have a temperature. I think the Dr. thought we were nuts, but he was nice to us anyway. I had to hold him on the bed and he did not feel nearly as hot as he had at our house. The Dr. did hear he was a little congested, and so had a RSV test (a respiratory illness common in little kids that can be dangerous) run, and also tested his urine to make sure no infection, because a high temp is the only sign of a UTI. Dylan also somehow developed a rash all over in between the time the nurses checked him and when the dr. came in. Great! Well all the tests came back negative, so the Dr. said to just watch the temp. and the rash and if either got worse, to come back in. When we get home, we read the discharge papers which state in like the 2nd line that a new antibiotic can cause a rash. Oops, no one had asked, and neither of us had thought to mention he was now on amoxicillin. The little guy had to be in a hospital johnny again!




Luckily, he started to feel a little better the next couple of days, but then we discovered he had a lovely diaper rash on Tuesday. So we started putting some cream on it. We went to a little dinner party that night, and we mentioned it to the people hosting who have 2 small boys and they immediately asked us if he was on a new antibiotic. Yup! They said its probably a yeast infection! So we had Dylan's 2 month appt on Thurs and brought it up to his pediatrician. They were correct, and she prescribed us another medicine to use on his rash. Poor guy! It immediately started helping though so that's good, we have to use it for 2 weeks. We also got his 2 month statistics: 14 lbs, which is in the 90th percentile and 23.75 inches, which is in the 80th percentile, but both of us noticed the nurse didn't quite straighten out his legs, so we'll see next time. He is a growing boy!