Nephrologist

Rachel had her annual 6 month appointment with her kidney doc. He took at look at her blood work that she had done a couple weeks ago. He said that going by the blood work, her growth and by my reports on her health, Rachel is doing very well. He explained more about what was going on with her kidneys and I finally understand what hydronephrosis means. Rachel's kidneys never got to fully develop because of being born so early. Her kidneys are also damaged. Over time our kidneys take a lot of punishment and that slowly wears them down. Some people's kidneys are worse than others. Rachel's kidneys are functioning about 80-90 percent. Every six months we'll check to see how they are keeping up with Rachel's growth. As long as her growth is ok and her blood work is ok, then we have nothing to worry about. If the blood work comes back funky at any time, then we'll have to start talking medication. If the medication stops working, then we talk transplant. The doctor explained that this is a really slow progressing disease. That it can take 10 years before we see any signs of the prematurity and damage that has been done to Rachel's kidneys. He said that it is also something that you may never know you have, that he's had teenagers who went in for a broken bone, had blood work done only to find out they are in renal failure! At least we have a heads up on Rachel's issue and we can monitor it and treat it before it gets totally out of hand.