The good news is that the ultrasound showed that Matthew's horseshoe kidney is growing and functioning as it should. Yippee!
The mostly good news is that Matthew's bladder was empty during the ultrasound, so the doctor doesn't believe we need to clear out the scar tissue in his urethra that was caused by the failed Foley catheter insertion during his first surgery. He believes Mattie just needs to learn to relax a bit more to empty his bladder, and he's likely not doing that while on the potty-- right now. He expects it will come with time. Alrighty. Anybody have any suggestions for teaching a 3 year old how to 'relax'?
The not so good news is that the doctor is recommending surgery to remove Matthew's urachal cyst. It isn't urgent, but something he'd like us to consider, given that a high proportion of this type of cyst become cancerous over time. Though we knew it was there and that this might be a possibility one day, up until now, we were hoping the cyst would go away. Today's ultrasound showed that it hasn't. The good news is that it doesn't appear that it has grown or changed, but it is still rather large and somewhat concerning to the doctor. Hmmmm.
This surgery decision reminds me of Angelina Jolie's preventative double mastectomy after she found out she was a carrier of the BRCA1 gene. You can read her op ed about it from the NY Times here. At the time, I was awed with her decision, only imagining how hard of a decision it must have been. Now we have a similar decision to make for Matthew. If we remove the cyst, Matthew's chances of cancer are greatly lessened, but his rocky history with anesthesia and surgery make this a harder decision than we'd like. Please pray that our decision, whatever it may be, is the one that leads to the very best outcome.
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| Matthew enjoyed the sensory tubes in the ultrasound room. It was a much different experience today than when we were in the same room this Spring, diagnosing the bowel obstruction. |
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