The long road begins...

Boeboe age 6

So when Boeboe was 6 years old, and the wee and pooh accidents kept on happening, and was even getting worse, I took her to a urologist for the first time. Her first words to me was: “This is NOT your child’s fault. It’s NOT in her control.” Those words hit me hard. I used to think it is in her control. That she’s doing it because she’s too lazy to run, or because she’s too engrossed in play and doesn’t want to interrupt it. Especially because it so rarely happened during the mornings at school (she went from 7:30am until 12:45). But the urologist explained to me that because she’s 6 already, she knows that dehydrating herself would mean less accidents. So she doesn’t drink much at school. She also would use every ounce of energy, power and concentration she could muster, to keep from having an accident at school. Because she felt safe at home, and couldn't keep that up 24/7, she would lose control in the afternoons and evenings.

My poor, poor daughter. I never realised how hard, and how awful this was for her. She was just a little girl with a problem and I wasn’t helping her. The urologist did a thorough examination, also of her back. She said that she has a shallow, triangular dimple. Very shallow and very big. With lots of fine little hair over it. Which could possibly be a sign of spina bifida occulta (occulta means hidden). I was extremely surprised. The urologist also said her bladder wall was thickened and though her kidneys looked fine, there may possibly be reflux from the bladder into the kidneys. Called Vesicoureteral Reflux (VUR). This is when the pressure in the bladder causes old urine to back up into the ureters and even into the kidneys. This can be damaging to her kidneys.

She proposed we do a cystoscopy, because she also suspects a narrowed urethra which would need to be dilated. She believed this may be the cause of the accidents.

The cystoscopy was booked for 2 weeks later. I was extremely nervous as it would be done under anaesthesia. Before the procedure, they gave Boeboe dormicum. This caused her to become extremely relaxed, happy and over imaginative! It was hilarious. :-) She would sit up in the bed, and talk to every nurse, every porter, every other patient she’d see. She’d make jokes and laughed and thought we were so funny. She said we all have 4 eyes and two noses and two mouths. :-) It broke some of me and my husband’s nervousness to laugh at her antics. When they came to fetch her, me and “Sannie”, her doll, went in with her. I stayed until the gas took effect, then left the theatre. Less than half an hour later, they wheeled her out. She was groggy, but not crying. She was even smiling at me!

It was a bit painful in the beginning for her, but soon she was herself again, and released from hospital. At her check-up a week later, the urologist was sad to hear that dilating the urethra didn’t make much of a difference. She was still having accidents! She told me that there was fortunately no sign of VUR (kidney reflux), but the bladder looked horrible. She showed me a picture. It wasn’t yellow and smooth, but pink with angry red sores everywhere and trabeculations (little bumps and knobs) everywhere. It looked painful. She prescribed an anti-cholinergic drug, oxybutynin, as well as an antibiotic for 3 months. And told us to go see a neurologist to rule out Spina Bifida Occulta.

To be continued…