C's "Diagnosis"

Finally, finally we got some answers (and a helluva lot more questions) regarding what’s been going on health-wise with my little boy toy.

[Picture: Whit took this yesterday as we were waiting in the examining room for the doctor. Doesn’t he look so sweet in this? It melts my heart!]

Yesterday afternoon he had an appt at Primary Children’s Medical Center in the pediatric urology department. They had the results of the numerous tests he’d had done sent to them, and the plan was that they were going to explain to me the results and hopefully come up with a plan of action. His doctor was a very nice and pleasant woman who had a cute haircut but was really thin. I also saw her unders. (Buy a belt invest in a belt!) I forgave all that because the woman was patient with C and knows her urology sh*t, you know?

The good news:
C does not, in fact, have Hydronephrosis like he was previously tentatively diagnosed with. (That, my friends, is why you see a specialist and not just a pediatrician.) His kidneys, for the time being, are more or less fine.

The bad news:
He has a “Very Angry Bladder.” Dr W explained it to me like this: most people with healthy looking bladders have bladders that have smooth edges and are shaped a little like a balloon. C’s bladder is elongated and has ripples in it. [See my lovely picture to illustrate.] This is bad. Also, a child his size and age should be able to hold about 200-300 cc’s of urine. His can only hold 100 cc’s, which is, like NOTHING. We’re talking teaspoons. No wonder we can’t potty-train the tike! Don’t blame it on the parents, blame it on the bladder! Also, she said that the normal thickness for a child’s bladder is 0.5 (0.5 what? mm’s? cm’s?) but his bladder’s thickness, apparently, is 1.37.

So what does all this mean? It means that the only diagnosis I got yesterday was that he has a “Very Angry Bladder.” The plan of action is that for the next 3 months, he will be on a low-level maintenance dose of antibiotics to keep the UTI’s at bay (And that’s another thing. We still don’t know why he gets near-constant UTI’s). Also, he’ll be on a small dose of a muscle relaxant for his bladder. Dr W hypothesizes that his bladder may (hopefully) be so thick because it’s having spasms from being “angry” and, well, when we work out our muscles, don’t they get bigger? So hopefully on the muscle relaxant he’ll not be able to spasm the “anger of the bladder” and it’ll go back to its original size. In 3 months, if it has not, then she said I should worry more and additional testing will be needed.

So. That’s it. I’m thankful I have medication to help him, and hopefully the “Angry Bladder” will turn into a “Happy Normal Bladder that Desperately Wants to be Potty-Trained” soon so that all this drama with him can be over. Per doc’s orders, I am not going to worry unless I need to. In three months.

Also, I’m very grateful we can save some money now. He gets a new toy every time he goes to the doctor, and boy, is he racking the goodies up. I wish *I* got a toy every time I went to the doctor. Crap, dude, I’d be getting 3 prizes a week!!