News

We finally heard from the Nephrologist today. On Monday the nurse called and told us that her right kidney was only working at 66% and her left at 33%. As you can imagine it was a shock for us. The nurse couldn't answer any questions, so I requested a call from the doctor.

Today she told us that the test had been translated to us incorrectly. She said that ideally each kidney would give 50%, but Natalie's share of work is not equal. Her right kidney seems to be functioning normally. She did confirm that she does have a left kidney and it is in her pelvis, right behind her bladder. She doesn't think it is a cystic kidney, but can't be sure until she observes Natalie a while longer. Natalie is scheduled to have another sonogram at her 1 year birthday and repeated blood work.

The doctor said that if the kidney is not cystic, then there were only a couple of complications with a pelvic kidney. First, because of it's location, it is surrounded by large blood vessels. At any time, one of those blood vessels can "move" and block the ureter. If that happens, Natalie would have sudden pain and I think it is corrected with surgery. Also, when she becomes pregnant she will need to be monitored because of the location of the kidney. She also said she would use any medication that causes the liver to work hard, like Ibuprofen in moderation. Lastly, she said that if Natalie would need to have surgery we would need to make them aware of the kidney. I think I might buy her a medical alert bracelet just in case.

All in all, I think we got pretty good news. Sounds like we are just going to have to take it a little bit at a time.