Visit to Duke Children's Hospital

As many of you know, when I was 4 days away from delivering Leighton, the doctors discovered that there was a problem with one of her kidneys. Based on the ultrasound our doctor told us that Leighton had one kidney that was dysplastic. This meant that one of her kidneys, her left kidney, was a bundle of cysts, rather than a kidney. We were devastated. Although we were very thankful that she still had one good kidney, since she would be able to live a normal and healthy life with just one. The days leading up to her birthdate were filled with excitement mixed in with worry.

The day came and our little bundle arrived. Since the kidney situation was not an urgent one, they scheduled a few tests for the days after her birth. Our doctor (who we looove), Dr. Holbrook, gave us some wonderful news! Leighton had TWO functioning kidneys!!! God sure is good because this was the answer to our prayers!!! He and the urologist did tell us that there was a blockage at the base of one of her ureter tubes (the tube leading from the kidney to the bladder). Dr. Holbrook said this was causing her left kidney to be slightly enlarged. He told us that he knew of a wonderful pediatric urologist at Duke that he recommended, Dr. Weiner. They scheduled for us to visit Dr. Weiner on December 20. Since then we have prayed that Leighton's dilated (enlarged) kidney did not get any worse, and hopefully was better.

We had our appointment at Duke with Dr. Weiner yesterday. We decided to go to Durham on Sunday night and we stayed at the Washington Duke Inn, which I highly recommend :)! We arrived for an ultrasound at 9am. At 10am we met with Dr. Weiner. He reviewed the results from the tests done when Leighton was born, along with the ultrasound that she had done that morning. He told us that the ultrasound showed that her left kidney and ureter tube were still dilated (enlarged). He said that, based on the information he has thus far he does not think that there is a blockage anymore. He seems to think that there was a blockage before she was born, and that the kidney is enlarged because the blockage is clearing. He wants to see us again in 3 months (March 21st) to have another ultrasound. If the ultrasound shows that the enlarged kidney is getting smaller, then Leighton will require no treatment, she will just visit Dr. Weiner every 3 months until she is 1 and every 6 months until she is 2. If the ultrasound shows that the kidney is the same, or worse, then she will have a nuclear scan done to pinpoint the blockage. The worst case scenario would require surgery. He told us that there is only a 20% chance of surgery, meaning an 80% chance that everything will clear up on it's own!

John and I feel very positive about the outcome of this. God has taken such good care of Leighton and continues to guide us through this situation. We are so thankful to Him for our little blessing!