Another Trip to John's Hopkins

I have mixed feelings about John's Hopkins, as I think most parent's do about children's hospitals. The last time we where there Johnny had his burn and I still feel horrible about that, but they did an amazing job and that was the first time I felt like he would really be okay after the burn. He does not even have a scare! and it hasn't even been a full year!!!

Today we headed back to Baltimore to John's Hopkins Children's center, this time for Lily to see a Urologist.
Again I have mixed feelings about the hospital. The nurses and doctors are very informative and nice, but we waited for 45 minutes after our appointment time to get in to see the urologist. The good news is that he told us nothing we didn't already know, but that is also the bad news. You always wish we had more information.

The vesicoureteral reflux (VUR) diagnoises was confirmed. Grade one (the most mild form) and on the left side only! She will be on the daily lose dose of antibiotics until she is two, when she will need to have the VCUG test again to be sure she has grown out of it. If she hasn't we will wait until she is 4 to test her again, and it won't be until she is 5 or 6 when we will consider a surgical repair, and even then if she isn't having multiple UTIs or complications we could still wait till she is even older. There will be a 70% chance that any of her children will have this reflux issue, she will need to remember this when her kids are born (wow isn't that a strange thought?) We will also need to keep an eye on Johnny since he has at least a 40% chance of having this same issue, though unlikely since he has yet to have any UTIs. We will need to watch for urgency, dribbling or wetting pants now that he is potty trained. Right now it isn't worth it to put him through the diagnotic tests.


She will need one more test in the next month, where some slightly radioactive liquid will be injected through an IV ( Mommy is very much not wanting to do this test) along with some slight sedative and will make her drowsy but not knock her out. Then they will take an hour worth of pictures with a special camera to watch her make urine and insure that her kidneys have no scars from this last UTI and that they are functioning properly.

All in all not a bad trip to John's Hopkins and I will always recommend it as the best children's hospital I know of!