Medical Update

So, The Girl was sick again on Tuesday. Back pain, followed by throwing up. The school called me because she burst out crying in class. She said that her stomach and her back hurt so much that she couldn’t concentrate in Reading, so she started crying. When I finally got up to the school (45 minutes, plus), she still hadn’t thrown up. But sure enough, as we started to leave the parking lot, she let loose. Thank ghod for plastic garbage bags.

While I drove up to get TG, The Wife was making calls to get us in at the Doc’s office. The Girl has been throwing up every 5 to 7 days since the 10th. We only just noticed that each bout was preceded by complaints of a backache. The medically perceptive among you are probably realizing what this means, but it took two days of blood tests, urinalysis and ultrasound for us to realize it. The poor kid has a blocked kidney.

It isn’t clear now whether it’s blocked by a tiny kidney stone, or if it’s a congenital thing that was just asymptomatic til now. The good news is twofold: 1) while the right kidney is somewhat enlarged, there is no indication of malfunction, and 2) she’s got an appointment for tommorrow at Children’s Hospital in Milwaukee.

I’ve looked around the web, and it looks like treatment possibilities are fairly simple. For a stone, the try to break it up with this ultrasonic table. For an actual ureter closure, the perform surgery to remove the closed off part, and reattach the remains. So… we’re nervous, but optimistic. And we should know what the plan is by the end of tommorrow.

From TG’s point of view, the downsides are numerous. She’s, of course, nervous about the prospect of surgery. But, she’s more nervous about catching up on homework if she misses a lot of school. And she’s seriously bummed that she might not be able to play soccer for the spring season. (it’s a short season, so surgery pretty much rules out any chance of her playing). It makes me sad, too, because she's been so excited about practicing for soccer this spring. Despite the uneven spring weather, we've already been out practicing her moves 4 or 5 times!

And... that's all we know now. I've got films of her ultrasounds at home. I'll try to scan one or two if I get a chance before we have to pass them to her Doc at Children's. More details as they are available.