Renal Sonogram and VCUG

Back in August, Brooke had two urinary tract infections (UTI's).  I am pretty positive that she got them at the pool, but that is just speculation.  When the first one happened, I knew it right away.  I was changing her diaper one morning, and her urine had a strange odor.  By that afternoon, she felt warm to me and was acting fussy.  By dinner, she refused all food and was super fussy.  This was not like her, and when she was running a temperature the next morning, Kevin and I took her to the doctor.  Since she is a baby, the only way they can obtain a urine sample is by catheterization.  That was a horrible experience!  It is terrible to see your child so scared, and then in pain.  The test confirmed that she had  UTI, so they started her on antibiotics, and made me bring her in 4 days later for another catheter to determine if the antibiotics were working.  Test results showed that the infection cleared, but we continued the meds for the full 10 days.

A few weeks later, after a fun weekend at the Gaylord Water Park in Grapevine, Brooke woke up with a fever and a slightly strange smelling urine.  I was hoping it wasn't another UTI, but since I couldn't keep the fever down even with Motrin, I took her back in.  After telling them that she was probably exposed to a million germs over the weekend, they tested her for Strep (which was positive), and did another catheter to check for a UTI (also positive).  I was pretty upset, and really felt like maybe I was doing something wrong.  I bathe her all the time (especially with how much swimming we do), change her diapers when they are wet, etc.  I just wasn't sure what was causing this.

Dr. Joki was out, but his nurse recommended that Brooke get a renal sonogram to check for damage to her kidneys, and also a VCUG to check her urine flow and make sure that her urine was not flowing back into the ureters and causing an infection.  I was hesitant to jump to the tests, especially after I received the bills for the catheters (almost $800).  I had my Dad call my Mom's cousin who is a urologist, and he said that those tests were pretty conservative and that he would recommend it.  So, we scheduled them for October 7th.

 The morning of the procedure, I was only allowed to give Brooke clear liquids.  I was worried how she would take a bottle of warm water, but she drank it as if it was her normal milk.  Kevin had also given her a blessing the night before her procedure, since he wasn't able to go with us.

 She was so cute wandering around the lobby, but I knew she was in for some unpleasantries :(  The tech doing the sonogram was SO sweet and explained everything to my little Brooke.

 But she DID NOT like that cool jelly on her belly, and kept pushing the lady's hand away and telling her "no no", haha.  It was pretty funny, but also really sad.  Since the tests were done at a children's hospital, they had a tv above the bed.  That distracted her for a little bit :)

 Once it was over, they gave Brooke some teddy grahams, which she was pretty happy about.

 We didn't have to wait long for the VCUG, which was definitely the harder of the two tests since it involved another catheter.  They made me strip Brooke down, and seeing her in that little hospital gown almost brought tears to my eyes.  Again, she was distracted by the tv, but as soon as they started cleaning her, she was crying.  I was standing at her head (with a huge jacket on to protect myself from the radiation), and had to keep her hands above her belly so it didn't interfere with the pictures/film they were taking.  They placed the catheter (which went REALLY well), inflated the balloon, filled her little bladder up with a contrast solution, then waited for her to get the urge to pee.  After waiting the "normal" time, I guess, Brooke still wasn't trying to pee, so they started pouring warm water on her legs and on her vagina.  When that didn't make her pee, they then started pushing on her bladder and she started crying again.  They took more pictures as she peed a little, then they removed the catheter and let me put a diaper on her.

 I was supposed to just hold her until she peed more in her diaper, and then they could take the final pictures and be done.  After 20 minutes, she barely had any urine in her diaper, but they were able to get the pics they needed and they sent us on our way.  Overall, it was much less traumatic than I thought it would be, and Brooke was a real trooper!

We received the results a few days later, and everything came back normal.  In a way, that was reassuring to me because my mothering instincts told me that nothing was anatomically wrong with her.  But, I think it was better to be safe than sorry :)  And she hasn't had any issues since, so I really attribute those UTI's to the pool.  Hopefully we don't have these issues next summer, because Brooke really loves the water!