A Spina Bifida Post

We drove to Plano yesterday to have our trusty Urologist take a look at why we can't get Aaron any more continent than he already is. Our major issue, in relation to the Spina Bifida that Aaron lives with, is our daily battle with pee and poop. The number 2 side of things is pretty well managed, but the last 4 months have been riddled with number 1 issues.


Aaron was given an urodynamic test. He was poked and prodded as 220 ccs of water was pushed into his bladder and electrodes were hooked to very unmentionable places. He was a little nervous about some of the electrodes but was very brave - even when his brother declared that they would hurt coming off!


Drum Roll, please. The stats are that his bladder holds just about as much as any other 6 year old bladder, but his sphincter muscle doesn't work at all. This means that any more surgery to tighten his bladder neck or put Deflux in his ureters is not going to help our little boy. Our options at this point are minimal.

We could completely block off the regular pee route and open another one by his belly button. Technically this would be done through surgery - not by Nathan or me. It would definitely fix the problem, but it would close off all other less invasive options. Or... we can wait until puberty and hope his prostrate will enlarge enough at that time to help him hold his urine longer. Or.... or we can hope to try a very new nerve rerouting surgery being tested here in the United States at Beaumont Hospital in Minnesota, (I think). It was created by a Chinese Surgeon named Xiao. Only about 8 children so far have had it done and results are still not completely conclusive.

Well, puberty is at least 7 years away and the rerouting surgery is no where near researched enough to be done on my little boy. Our Doc suggests to wait it out for awhile and we agree that doing nothing seems the best approach...for now.

I remember sitting in a church service about 4 years ago and hearing our Pastor relishing the turning point in which a parent no longer buys diapers or pullups. We have been buying those products since the year 2000 and it looks like we will continue to use them well into the next decade. I wonder if Huggies has some sort of most loyal customer reward? If so, I am sure we are in the running for the grand prize!