OK, I had a doctor's appointment today and I prepared myself for a lot of info because since the last time I saw the doctor 4 weeks ago we had our Quad Screen for birth defects done and our anatomy ultrasound.
So everything on the Quad Screen came back normal, no issues there. Everything on the ultrasound looked good with the exception of the baby's right kidney. Dr. said that the right kidney was dialated. OK? What does that mean? Well it means that the area inside the kidney that holds the baby's waste was bigger then what would have been expected. She said this could be caused by many insignificant things; the way the baby was positioned caused the measurement to be off slightly, or more commonly the baby just hadn't emptied the waste lately - like he was holding his pee. She said it is more commonly noted in boys then girls. She said we would do another ultrasound at 28 weeks to see if the problem had corrected itself. She said that we would have been concerned if there was a blockage in the "drain tube" leading from the kidney, but that the ultrasound didn't show a blockage - just that the kidney was dialated.
So I did some reading online after I got back to work and this is a summary of what I learned. Dialated kidneys are more common in boys, they tend to correct themselves on their own before birth or shortly thereafter. Ultrasounds will be done before the baby is born to monitor the kidney's size, if the kidney is still dialated at birth an ultrasound will be done on the baby after it's born to determine a course of action. Common treatment includes - 1. do nothing and just monitor the baby as they grow, 2. give oral meds to help fight infections (UTI's), or 3. do surgery. All of which depend on the degree of dialation. I did find an article that said some people have dialated or enlarged kidney's and never even know it, the individual may just be more prone to UTI's or kidney infections. One lady talked about how her child had a dialated kidney noted on her 24 week ultrasound and her baby was born and monitored until the age of 3 when the kidney corrected itself. So I guess there really isn't a cause for concern as long as we stay on top of it, so here's to hoping the next ultrasound looks normal!
xoxo
1 comment:
Hey Darci this same thing happened to us when i was pregnant with Pierson. Truthfully every person I know that has had a boy has had the same problem. The thing is the "Dilated Kidney" aka enlarged kidney, can get enlarged bc the Ureters or " drainage tube" as you called it actually form slower then the kidney its self. So of course it is going to be difficult for the urine to leave the kidney if the ureter is not large enough to accommodate the volume of the urine leaving it. Anyway they made me go to the doc every month to check on it and every month it looked better and better....Honestly i think this is something that has probably went on for years we just never recognized it because it wasn't the "age" of the sonogram. YOu know bc when my mom was pregnant with me they didn't even take a sono....so basically in 10yrs from now they will probably recognise this "ENLArged Kidney" as part of a normal growing process. But until then look at it this way, you get to get several sono pics as opposed to the normal 1 or 2... and with every pic you get more and more confirmation that you are In-fact having a boy. But don't stress this happens A LOT!
GOOD LUCK!
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