Will was born with a birth defect in his kidney, of Hydronephrosis that was found at my 19 week ultrasound. I had a ultrasound every month until he was born. We also recieved a referral for a Pediatric Nephrologist from the Maternal Fetal Specialist that I was see while pregnant.
He was born at 36 weeks due to the size of his kidney. He had a ultrasound the day he was born that showed no change.
At 1 week of age we took him to Arkansas Childrens Hospital in Little Rock for a ultrasound and a Voiding Cystoureterogram(VCUG) to check for reflux into the kidney. No reflux was noted, he kidney was slightly bigger than at birth but not by much. Dr Canon said the right kidney was a grade 1 and the left kidney was a grade 3-4. 1 is the best, 4 is the worst. 1 and 2 usually self correct, 4 always needs surgery, 3 can go either way.
At his 3 month appointment we had to go back to ACH for a Renogram, this test made sure that his kidneys were functioning properly. And, they were. 49%/51%. They did not tell us the size of the kidney at this appointment.
At 6 months of age he was to have another ultrasound, the Pediatric Urologist, Dr. Stephen Canon, is only in Lowell once a month. We were out of town that week, so his appointment was made for the following month. On September 3rd at 6 1/2 months of age we had the ultrasound. His kidney appeared very large, bigger than before, to us during the ultrasound. We didn't think that meant surgery. We saw Dr Canon and he scheduled Will's Left Robotic Pyleoplasy with Stent Placement for remove his Left Ureteropelvic junction obstruction by Davincii robot on September 22.
Once Dr Canon completed the surgery he came and talked to William and I and brought us this picture.
He told us that will had a tortorus ureter and a narrowing. Below is a picture of what a ureter should look like(left side).
Dr Canon removed the part of the ureter that was causing the obstruction and reattached the ureter with a stent in place, as in the picture below.
The day of surgery was rough, to say the least. He has 4 incisions on his belly about 1inch in length each. We were discharged around 5pm the day after surgery. Will really made a turn around for the better after his catheter was removed and we were able to go outside to the playground.
Today is day 4 postoperative he seems to be his normal happy self most of the time. He is still very tired, not eating like he did before surgery and cranky/fussy some.
In about 4 weeks we will go back to have the stent removed.
Dr. Canon will continue to see his in 3 months to make sure that the swelling of the kidney is decreasing. Dr. Canon said that sometimes it is 6 months post op before reduction in swelling is seen. If that is not the case at 6 months post op, Will will have to have a different procedure to fix his kidney.
Below is a picture of the Davinci Robot.
