Urology Appointment

Another great appointment today!  This was the one I was the most nervous about because the Urologist was really skeptical letting us wait 4 months. He wanted to do the permanent catheter back in November, but we have been trying SO HARD and it's paid off!  

We started our marathon day with ultrasounds. He had to drink at least 20 oz an hour before so that his bladder was full. They had to do pre and post void ultrasounds but had warned us that they may have to do a VCUG as well if they weren't able to see enough with the ultrasounds.  The VCUG is the worst test for him, and we really didn't want to do it.  I talked to Roman about it a lot.  I had huge knots in my stomach but was positive with him.  

Oh, and backing up, as we were walking out to the car, he fell on the ice on our driveway and skinned his CHEEK, I have never seen a skinned cheek, but it looks so sad!  :(  So before we were even gone he was really emotional about that, and the anticipation.  

Thankfully he had a great radiology tech who was so great with Roman.  The tech talked and played with Roman while he did the ultrasound.  He got all the images for the pre-void ultrasound then sent us to the bathroom.  Roman went to the bathroom and we went back and the first thing he checked was how much he still had in his bladder.  He still had 56 ml in his bladder (which isn't that bad for Roman, but more then they like for a post void ultrasound so we were looking at the seriously possibility of a VCUG)  He said "I'll just delete that one and have him try one more time."  So we went back to the bathroom and he was able to get it down to 12 ml which they were fine with so NO VCUG!  YAY!  Bladder and Kidneys looked about the same.  Left kidney (more damaged one) looked a little worse, Right kidney looked a little better, ureters still dilated, bladder still hard and rigid.  

After that we went to see his Urologist and he started by asking how things have been going over the last 4 months, went over results from the tests and nephrologist, looked at the ultrasound and asked about Roman's bathroom habits.  He commented again how surprised he was how great the school has been about making sure he gets to the bathroom frequently, he was been very thankful for the school he is at.  Especially his teachers.  I give them a lot of credit too for helping us get him better! After all that he told us that we are doing a fantastic job managing his damage and that for now he doesn't see a need for the foreseeable future to place a permanent catheter.  He was very impressed that we are doing the cluster voiding (he has to pee every 10 minutes for the last hour before bed) at night still, getting up in the night and that Roman's kidney function is still improving.  So everything is basically still the same, but I feel so much better about it. We are used to this.  We do it already so it's good to know we are doing the best thing for him.