Guest guest Posted November 15, 2008 Report Share Posted November 15, 2008 Hey everyone - I know we often say we don't hear enough positive stories on this board so I thought I'd share Emma's. We did her 6 months post op tests on her kidneys and bladder and the results couldn't have been better. Short recap - Emma had a normal MRI, but she had other symptoms of tethered cord - neurogenic bladder that was the biggest they'd ever seen in a 3 year old. She didn't empty it fully (only halfway and her halfway was the point where a " normal " bladder person would be full) and it was backing up causing hydronephrosis and damaging her kidneys. She also had constipation. We found a neurosurgeon who said we could do the tethered cord release though she had a normal MRI b/c she was only getting worse and she had sooo many symptoms, etc. He said it had a 50/50 chance of it working with a normal MRI. He preformed the surgery and found once in there she had a thickened filum. Immediately after the surgery we saw results - she started recognizing when to use the bathroom and going frequently, had to go off her laxitive, etc. Other things happened to, she potty trained immediately, she stopped waking up at night crying for no reason, her temper tantrums stopped. 6 months later (last week) we went in for some post of checks of her kidneys and bladder. The results were way better than we could have hoped for. Her bladder now empties FULLY and her hydronephrosis causing kidney damage is GONE. There is no pressure on her kidneys from her bladder not functioning so they are functioning correctly. In short, she's a totally NORMAL HEALTHY kid now. Sure we have to watch her for signs of retether at growth spurts but for now her life is 100% better than it would have been without surgery. Anyway, I just wanted to share our very positive outcome! Also how many of you who had a thickened filum had a retether occur? I hope you all realize I'm not posting this to brag, I'm posting this b/c I'm happy and hoping this gives others some hope for their situation too! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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