Some history on Mark

So....for over 11 years I have been a stay-at-home mom. In the last part of 2001, I found out I had endometriosis. In February 2002, I ended up having to have an endoscopic surgery in order to get rid of cysts and  make things less painful. I was then to be put on a shot for 6 months that would technically put me in a premature menopause in order to let everything clear up and give me, roughly, a 5 yr reprieve from the pain and cysts.

Then, I go for my first 3 shots...one a month. One in April, May and June. Now remember....this shot was to put me in a forced menopause....which means no "Lady Visitor" each month. So comes June. I get a HUGE case of hiccups.....I figure out I'm pregnant. Now, I know this is a weird "clue," but that was always my clue with all the boys...lol. So I call the doctor's office. They say there is NO WAY I'm pregnant. I convince them to give me a test. I go into the office and they do a blood test because they are ABSOLUTELY convinced I am NOT pregnant. They even tell me on the way out "We'll call you if it's positive...but it probably won't be" Well....yep...you guessed it...they called. They were dumb struck. You could even hear it in their voice. "Ummmm. Your test came back.....and you were right.....you're pregnant." Well....I DID tell them I had hiccups...lol :)

They did a sonogram to REALLY confirm my pregnancy

So of course we had to stop the shots. They had never heard of anyone getting pregnant while being on the shot. It was unheard of. So the doctors and nurses were just quiet. Through my pregnancy, all was well. I measured like I was supposed to...until week 28...then I started measuring 2 weeks behind. So they scheduled an extra ultrasound to see what that all was well. As the tech was looking, she was all talkative. Then, all of a sudden, she got quiet. Then she said she had to go get a doctor and rushed out. I look to L and start to panic.The doctor came in. At this time, I am freaking out. I had tears going down the side of my face. She won't tell me anything but is continuing to do the ultrasound.

Then the words started coming out...yet it took a bit to grasp them. My son had a multicystic dysplastic kidney (MCDK). This meant that one kidney was covered in cysts and had no function. As far as they could see, the other kidney was fine. They would keep monitoring it via sonograms, then he'd have to have a sonogram after he was born to find out the extent of things. So we were in shock. Here we were, going along, everything fine...then BOOM!

Now, of course, I did what any expecting mother SHOULDN'T do....I went and got on the internet and read about it. Thankfully, this problem wasn't too dire. Children survive this, the working kidney takes over for the other, and all is fine. The one you had to worry about was POLYcystic. This would mean that BOTH kidneys were surrounded by cysts and it is fatal. So I just had to keep the faith that the tech and doctor were correct and it was just the one kidney.

Come January 25th, 2003. My son came into the world ON his due date. Being on time has stuck with him :) He hates to be late to ANYTHING (and I hear about it if we are 1 minute late to Awanas..lol).

A day after being born, we had him looked at by a urologist. He did an ultrasound and saw that it was only his left kidney. His right kidney was wonderful. The next step was to have him go into the office and have a procedure to find out how much, if any, the left kidney was working.  Then it'd be figured out if he'd have to have a surgery to have the kidney removed or if we just kept an eye on it to make sure it "went away." With MCDK, the good outcome is that the kidney, in my words, implodes on itself, disintegrates, then "goes away."

So we go into the office. They give him medicine to make him sleepy and then strap him to a board. This is because they are going to run dye through his kidney and see what happens. They want him still so that it will all go well. He's only about 2 months old. This was tough to watch. I stayed in the room with him, but couldn't really do anything because I didn't want to rouse him or make him move. If he started to, I could calm him, but that was it.  I was able to watch the dye up on the screen. Now that was neat :)

The results: His kidney worked .01%. That wasn't good. That means that .01% of urine was traveling in through that kidney. That also means that it could cause infection. It would have been better if the kidney worked 0%. So, we had to schedule close sonograms so that he could keep a close eye and make sure that kidney was getting smaller and nothing else was happening.

I think my happiest day was the day we got the sonogram that showed it being as small as the head of a pin. It was going and the good kidney was HUGE..lol. It was big enough for both kidneys and doing the job of them both.

  

Left Kidney

Right Kidney

I have always wondered if since I became pregnant on the shot...that no one had become pregnant on...if that was the reason for the MCDK....but we'll never know. I also have to go back to the doctor and talk to him. When we were first going there, he had said no sports for him growing up...due to the one kidney. Then once the right kidney started growing great and taking over, he said sports would be fine. Now, all the medical articles I read, it says no contact sports. Welp....Mark is wanting to try out for football in middle school. I wonder if I am going to have to crush his dreams. :(

So my mom had always said I was the oddball in the family (the only girl,  the only one to have to have glasses, the only one to have to have braces, the only one that had a tooth in my gum pointed up towards my nose (I'll tell you about that at some other time :) ) and now I have a son who has one kidney. But it's ok...he's ok...and that kidney will be ok :) He is an oddball sometimes...but he's like his momma, he's mine, and I LOVE him :)