Thursday, July 16, 2009

Kidney Reflux, UTI And Prevention Of UTI

My 15-month old toddler has been having bacteria in her urine almost all her life. She was first diagnosed as suffering from UTI when she was 7 weeks old. She had high fever, vomitting, loss of appetite and was listless. Her pee also smelled terribly foul, like some rotten fish. I kind of expected her to get UTI when our paed broke the diagnosis to us as our Ob & Gyn detected that our fetus had a dilated right kidney when I was about 14 weeks pregnant with her.

Since she was 7 weeks old, my baby girl has had countless urine samples taken, endless trips to the hospitals, countless number of pokes, pricks and prodes on her hands and feet, a daily dose of prophylactic antibiotics (which by the way, those pesky bacteria has already become resistant to, but our doctors are still of the opinion that she should continue eating the antibiotics), countless number of scans (from ultrasound scans to MCUG to MAG 3 scan) and 2 months ago, she had a Ureteral Reimplantation surgery done to fix the problem.

We had found out from one of the many scans that our baby has a duplex right kidney, in addition to a Grade III kidney reflux on the right kidney. Thank God that her left kidney is spared from kidney reflux. A MAG 3 scan showed that her right duplex kidneys are still functioning pretty well, praise the Lord!

In May this year, my baby underwent a 5-hour Ureteral Reimplantation surgery to fix her ureters which were very dilated. We were told that the surgery went well but our baby developed a complication after the surgery. She developed an adhesive intestinal obstruction and she kept vomitting for 2 weeks. Adhesive intestinal obstruction is a documented complication of any abdominal surgery. She was suffering and had lost a lot of weight. Everything that she ate and drank came out from her mouth. The vomit was greenish stuff and that sure wasn't a good sign. Her tummy looked distended and she had fever which would not subside. Her 2-week stay in the hospital was like living hell for her and me and I pray that she never ever have to go through this again, ever. There were tubes everywhere on her body and a nasogastric tube (NG tube) on her nose. Keeping the NG tube on her nose was a challenge as my baby kept trying to pull it off. Long story cut short, she had another surgery 2 weeks after the primary surgery to fix the gut problem.

Over the past one year, I have tried many products that are supposedly well-known for preventing UTIs and to fight infections but sadly, none of those worked. My baby had bacteria (with colony counts of greater than 100,000) detected in her pee every single month. At times, none of the safe antibiotics were sensitive to those pesky bugs as those bugs have become resistant to almost all the antibiotics. With prayers and by forcing gallons of water down my baby's throat, those bacteria were eventually flushed out from her body.

Even after the Ureteral Reimplantation surgery, there was still bacteria (Klebsiella) detected in my baby's pee. I was really devastated and lost hope. For days, I did a lot of research over the internet to read up more on UTI prevention and discovered D-Mannose. I was really doubtful about D-Mannose as I've never heard of this name. I was apprehensive that all the positive reviews and comments about how effective D-Mannose is in treating and preventing UTI were only marketing gimmick and tactics. But what I had was only hope and I decided to send an email to a company in the UK that sells D-Mannose online. The owners were kind enough to send me 3 tubs of D-Mannose. With a tad doubt, I still fed my baby with it.

Today is almost 1.5 weeks since I fed my baby with D-Mannose and all the classic symptoms of bacteria in her pee had sort of vanished. No more smelly pee, no more red and sore labia and no more purging. Her pee also looked clear. I shall continue to feed my baby with D-Mannose in the hope that it can prevent those pesky bugs from invading my poor baby's urinary tract.

On top of D-Mannose, I am also feeding my baby with barley water everyday, fresh coconut water, E-Excel's Millenium (cactus juice), Manuka honey, boiled lemon grass water and lots of water to flush out those pesky bugs from her body.

My baby's next post-operative MCUG scan is scheduled for end of next month. I am praying hard that it will show NO MORE kidney reflux.

1 comment:

  1. My baby has grade4-5 kidney reflux.. they said she would have to be on anitbiotics for a year and I really dont want that for her.. Do you think the d-mannose will work for keeping the UTI's away?

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