Monthly Archives: January 2009

Today is the day that Baby C did the IVP and MCUG procedures at the hospital. We spent almost the whole day at the hospital and it was a day of non-stop yelling, wailing and bawling for poor baby. After feeding her the sedation meds the moment we reached the hospital, I nursed her and spent almost 30 minutes to put her to sleep. I just had a nagging feeling that she would be wide awake throughout all the procedures and true enough, the moment she was placed on the hospital bed, my baby who has developed a phobia of hospital beds woke up! Before anything was done to her, she was already yelling her heart out. Can you imagine the hours that passed from 10am – 3pm? It was a nightmare for both baby and me…. and truly torturous for baby.

As I had expected, our doctor had a difficult time finding a vein to insert the IV line. Poor baby was poked a total of 3 times. After all the crying, baby dozed off in my arms and I brought her down to the Imaging Department for the big thing. I was ordered out of the Imaging Room. The doctor first inserted the catheter into her urethra. The MCUG procedure followed. Poor baby’s screams and cries really crushed my heart to pieces.  I wanted to cry out loud but tried hard not to…. there was a HUGE lump in my throat throughout my time at the hospital today.   After half an hour which seemed like forever, the door of the Imaging Room opened and I saw one of the nurses cradling her. Poor baby’s eyes were swollen from all the crying.

As the doctor could not find a vein on her hands, the IV line had to be affixed on her foot. She was poked once on her hand and twice on her feet.

Baby all groggy from the sedation meds…. waiting for the Radiologist to arrive to perform the MCUG on her.

After the MCUG, I had to make baby wee wee to empty her bladder before the last picture is taken on her empty bladder.
Waiting for baby to pee was the hardest and took up a lot of time. We had to make her pee several times until the bladder was empty before a picture could be taken.
In this pic, I was waiting for baby to pee. She wasn’t wearing any diaper and there was a waterproof paper beneath her bum.

The IVP procedure was less traumatic for baby as I could carry her when the dye (iodin) was injected through the IV line. What traumatized her (though not painful) was placing her on the metal bed with a huge X-ray equipment above her. Baby had to be placed on the bed several times, in different positions for pictures to be taken. Each time she was placed on the bed, she bawled and struggled. Though she was darn tired, sleepy and groggy, she was still crying big time the moment she was placed on the bed.

Long story cut short, we did not manage to see our pediatric nephrologist today as it was already 3ish pm by the time the 2 reports for the IVP and MCUG were ready. I only ate my lunch at 3pm outside the Imaging Room… which hubby packed for me from a nearby Japanese restaurant….and poor baby had to starve and only ate her lunch (porridge) at 5pm.  I was merely swallowing down my grilled Mackeral fish and didn’t have any appetite. I was suffering from a tummy ache, resulting from STRESS! 

We will be going to the hospital again tomorrow to meet our doctor for her to interpret the report to us. But one thing is confirmed. Both of baby’s right ureters (she has a Duplex or Duplicated collecting system, which means double ureters), are blocked…. thus, she will most likely need a surgery to fix the problem.

Everything seemed to go wrong today…
1) baby woke up unusually early today at 6:30am (her normal wake up time is 8:30am) and I couldn’t do much work in the morning but nurse her and entertain her. Consequently, we arrived slightly late at the hospital,
2) baby had to be poked thrice for the IV line (brandula) to be inserted as the doctor could not locate a vein,
3) the sedation meds didn’t work – though she had taken sedation meds and she was sleepy, her mind was wide awake and she cried and screamed the whole day,
4) blood was oozing out from the IV line on her foot and the line had to be taken out prematurely. Consequently, the antibiotics jab (to prevent infection resulting from the procedures) couldn’t be given through the IV line and had to be given via intra-muscular on her bum and caused baby more pain and trauma.
Damn the Murphy’s Law!

The damage to the hubs’ pocket today is over RM1k and all medical expenses related to baby’s kidney reflux will not be covered by her insurance.

….. to be continued.

My maid and I spent our entire morning at the hospital today.  First we brought Baby C to the Imaging Department for an ultrasound scan of her kidneys and urinary tract.  While waiting for our turn, I quickly fed Baby C some freshly squeezed orange juice, cactus juice and probiotics which I’d put in a bottle.  After the ultrasound scan (which Baby C struggled and bawled till she almost puked), off we went to the procedures room to have her pee collected.  Spent around half an hour collecting her pee.  Next, my maid and I brought Baby C’s pee to the lab for the test to be done.  We then went back to the Imaging Dept. to collect the ultrasound scan report.  After all the running about up and down the hospital, we had to wait another half an hour to see the pediatric nephrologist. 

The ultrasound scan showed that Baby C indeed has a duplicated or duplex system on the right side of her kidney.  She has 2 ureters instead of one and one of the ureters is lying too lowly to the bladder.  Our doctor suggested that an IVP and another MCUG (the first MCUG was performed at HUKM about half a year ago) to be carried out to see if the ureters are blocked and to see what’s going on in her kidneys and urinary tract system. The 2 procedures have been scheduled to be carried out for Monday next week.   If there are blockages, a surgery has to be performed.  Baby C would have to be sedated before the 2 procedures are being carried out.  This will be the first time that my baby would have to be sedated and I’m really worried…. worried that the sedation meds will have little or no effect on her and that she will not go to sleep or will wake up in the midst of the procedure…. and bawl big time till she pukes.  One time, when our doctor was trying to insert a catheter into her uretra to collect her pee, she was so traumatized that she cried till she puked everywhere in the procedures room.  Am also worried that the sedation meds will be too strong on Baby C, so much that she won’t wake up!  Looks like I’ll have more things to worry about in the days and months to come.  This is only the tip of the iceberg.  I’m praying that all these will come to an end by this year.