Date of Birth: October 1, 2002 Mom's E-mail Address: kellyr@mindsync.com Residence: Fair Oaks, California At 32 weeks gestation they saw that I had a low amniotic fluid level, but saw no problems with the baby, so they put me on bedrest hoping to get me to at least 34 weeks. Well, I made it to 34 1/2 weeks and everything was fine. Her apgar scores were 8 & 9, and they just said she would be in the hospital for 1-2 weeks since she was early. Well, after 2 1/2 weeks and her not getting the sucking ability very well, and still losing weight (born at 4lbs 12oz and down to 4lbs 3oz) they decided to do some bloodwork and then finally an ultrasound. They found that she had bilateral dysplastic kidneys. The neonatologist told us it was probably genetic (and we would probably want to rethink having any other children-Kaitlyn is our first), there was a poor prognosis, and that we could take her home in a couple of days and enjoy her while she was alive. And, oh yeah, there is transplant, but would you really want to put her through that??? It was a horrible 24hrs until we finally demanded on talking to the pediatric neonatologist, who at least gave us some hope. Oh yeah, it's not necessarily genetic!!! Come to find out, they are now saying something happened in utero where her kidneys lacked oxygen for a while. Kaitlyn has done wonderful so far. She just had her first cold a few weeks ago, and she will be a year old in 2 weeks. We were referred to Stanford at 6 months when her kidney function was at 10%, so they put in a central line for blood draws and peritoneal catheter thinking she would need it in the near future. Well, as soon as we put it in, her creatnine level went down, and she still hasn't needed it. We put in an NG tube at 8 months because it was harder and harder to get her to eat all the high calorie formula they wanted her to to get her to 20-22lbs. She has done great with it so far, with some throwing up, but not too bad. She is now up to 19 1/2 lbs but is not growing in length like they want so we just started the growth hormone a month ago. We are deciding on a transplant date this December or January. Her creatnine level is still down, but Stanford says they haven't seen any advantages to waiting on the transplant. Return to Main Menu Tricia's Background Collection |
