Super Baby!

So I realize I am biased.

*I* think Luke is just the cat's meow. Beautiful, happy, sweet and mellow. Just a good, good, good baby.

But again, I'm biased.

However, yesterday my feelings were confirmed when we took Luke for his procedure at Children's. This procedure, let me just mention, probably would make a grown man VUH-HERY uncomfortable. Heck, just thinking about it makes ME uncomfortable. Its description is this:

Voiding cystourethrogram (VCUG) - a specific X-ray that examines the urinary tract. A catheter (hollow tube) is placed in the urethra (tube that drains urine from the bladder to the outside of the body) and the bladder is filled with a liquid dye. X-ray images will be taken as the bladder fills and empties. The images will show if there is any reverse flow of urine into the ureters and kidneys and how well the bladder empties. It is also used to determine if there is obstruction in the urethra.

Yes, that's right...a tube is placed in the urethra...which means in a little boy, this tube has to go up--well, you know where. Without any pain relief or sedation or anything. Except some sugar water and strobe lights for distraction.

My poor boy had to be undressed, dressed in a pale peach baby hospital gown (SO not our color!) and then be strapped to an x-ray table for about a half an hour while various things were done--and he was just amazing! He did not cry or even HINT at crying (except when I wasn't shoving the sugar water in his mouth fast enough--that boy LOOOOOOVVVVEEESSS him some sugar water!) and the techs and radiologists couldn't believe that he was not only NOT crying, but was smiling and cooing at them. They called him Super Baby and said they were just amazed at what a good disposition he had.

Yeah, well, why wouldn't he? His mommy tells him he's the most amazing little thing and devotes her every second to making sure he's happy and healthy. Life's good for that boy!

The doctor (and an amazing doctor at that!) said she'd NEVER heard of a baby having that procedure done without crying.

Well, she's never met my sweet Luke. Ok, she has, but the first time she met him, he was asleep!

The results of the test were great. He did NOT have reflux of the ureter, which was good news. He DOES have some obstruction in his left kidney, but on the urologist's scale of severity, which ranges from 1-5 with 1 being the most mild, she rated his a 1. She said his right kidney looked beautiful and his left kidney, though swollen a bit, was pretty mild and we'd just need to monitor it in a year to see what it's done. His official reasoning for the hydronephrosis was

Ureteropelvic junction obstruction (obstruction where kidney and ureter meet) - signs can include swelling of pelvic region without any swelling of the ureter.

This could basically just be his anatomy, in which case, as he grows, may resolve. It could also get worse as he grows, but that's not likely. She thought it was very interesting that my mother had moderate hydronephrosis of her right kidney, my sister has lupus nephritis (although this is because of her lupus, of course) and that Matthew had one normal kidney and one pelvic kidney and I guess it is pretty coincidental that so many immediate family members have kidney issues. Even still, the worst that came out of my mom's was she was prone to kidney infections, as Luke is now prone to UTIs, but that's completely and totally manageable! His situation is so mild that she took him off the antibiotics but told us that if he had a fever for ANY reason, we'd need to test his urine to be sure it was not a UTI. (How much fun will that be when he's teething? Imagine getting a urine sample from a baby boy every time he runs a fever!)

All in all, great news! I still can NOT get over how well Luke did with all of the poking and prodding. Seriously, he is just such a precious little soul--his smile is infectious (the x-ray room was just totally taken with him) and everyone who saw him in his little gown just gushed over him and he cooed right back.

I am so grateful to be blessed with this sweetheart!