Posts by holloweagle6

Quick question—where do you guys pick up stuff like cranberry juice, parsley, and all that? I used to give her Cranatine, but I eventually quit because I was honestly getting paranoid about all the "chemicals." Plus, trying to force down syrup at bedtime is just a nightmare. Now she’s started asking, "Why do I have to take this when the kids at daycare don't?" It's a lot. And man, back when she was in a smaller group, she’d actually try to play doctor—pulling blood, "treating" people on the floor, even explaining how to "look at the belly button" (which was our way of describing an ultrasound). The teachers were cool with it since they knew what was going on, but now things are different. We’re pretty stressed about her next urine test, too. Last time we had to do bloodwork, she totally bolted, ended up with both hands all scraped up, and we barely managed to get a single vial filled.

William Chase7 said:🙂 My little girl had third-degree congenital reflux. For her first three years, besides all those nasty and painful tests, she was on Ceporex every single day just to ward off infections. On top of that, she fought off Escherichia coli three separate times, which meant more antibiotics...
The doctors told us she’d probably need surgery, though there was a tiny, slim chance the opening might just close up on its own over time... and honestly, we hit the jackpot with her. She's almost four now, and it actually started closing up! Her latest scan from last month showed it’s completely healed. The reflux is totally gone.
Now, E. coli is a different beast entirely. It's a lifelong battle. This thing can lay low for years, but the second it shows up, it's a problem. Since I'm living proof of how this "monster" can wreck your kidneys, we try to stay ahead of it with my daughter by doing monthly urine checks and cultures. We have to catch it before it goes wild and starts damaging her organs...
So, yeah, VUR *can* actually resolve on its own without surgery! Good luck!!

Congrats 😍 This is such a beautiful post. Honestly, it gives me some hope that maybe things will "close up" for us too. Our little one was diagnosed with bilateral reflux (Grade I and II) almost a year ago. We’re constantly monitoring everything, and she’s currently on prophylaxis—Cephalexin and Pyeloseptyl. Reading this makes me think we might actually dodge the surgery, even though doctors say it's routine. We have an appointment for a voiding cystourethrogram in November, and I'm just praying we see some improvement or at least stay the same so we can skip the operating room. Though, I don't know if being on constant antibiotics is the "smart" move in the long run. Anyway, huge congrats again 😍

vividsailor7 said:The nurse needs to collect the urine and the sample from the USA if you want to actually trust the results. Doing it this way just leaves too much room for contamination.

My little one is 3 and a half. It’s been just under a year since her VUR was flagged, and we’ve just been bringing in regular urine samples and doing cultures ourselves. We bring our own little containers since she ditched diapers last summer... a nurse has never actually collected a sample from her. Maybe they only do the formal collection for tiny babies?

vividsailor7 said:So, who’s actually the one taking the meds here, you or the nurse?

We’re basically just hauling around standard urine samples and culture results, plus we get bloodwork done every two months. Everything comes back totally fine, except for whatever keeps popping up on those urine cultures.🤷

Here’s another mom dealing with the reflux struggle (bilateral, grades 1 and 2)... my little one has been on prophylaxis for a month now—basically a month of Piyloseptyl and Cephalexin—but every single time we run a urine culture, Escherichia coli shows up. Honestly, neither her pediatrician nor the nephrologist thinks it’s a huge deal, which leaves me feeling totally lost. The ultrasound came back clean, too; no scarring at all except for one spot from the E. coli. From what I can gather, the main thing is just keeping everything under control since the reflux makes it impossible for her bladder to stay sterile—those bacteria basically have a free pass because of the VUR... so, I'm not entirely sure if I've actually wrapped my head around how this works. If I've got it wrong, please, someone set me straight. 🙂

Can I get a change made to holloweagle6 or holloweagle6_29? Thanks a ton.

Could you switch it to holloweagle6 instead? Just hit up Sash about it.

So, about two weeks ago, I got this sharp, stabbing pain right in my lower abdomen. It hit me so hard I couldn't even stand up straight; I had to practically crawl to the bathroom, and even just trying to pee was agonizing. I barely managed to catch some sleep, and it took like half an hour before things settled down. Since then, I’ve been getting these shooting pains—sometimes on the left, sometimes on the right—that really sting, followed by this dull, heavy ache. Look, I’m not a hypochondriac; I don't go running to the doctor every time I sneeze, but now I'm stuck wondering if I actually need to see a gynecologist. Plus, with a little kid running around, finding the time to sit in a waiting room is basically impossible.
Maybe it's just a cold? Or could it be from the Yas? Honestly, whenever I deal with my period—like when I had that massive issue where it lasted 7 days straight—I ended up sleeping through it on pills because the cramps were just brutal. Those periods were nothing compared to this (sorry for the phrasing). ☕

p.s. One of my ovaries has PCOS, but my OBGYN told me there wasn't anything to worry about. Now, I'm starting to second-guess everything.

Quick update;
So, on Thursday, Mom was trying to get that thing removed from her back. When she went to the clinic in Chicago, they checked her out and told her she should wait about a month before getting it taken off.
Koacno realized it’d be way better to just go private, so we called the Salus clinic (it's a private hospital over in Seattle) and she headed straight there that afternoon for a checkup. The doctor scheduled her for this coming Monday to get it done. Once it's out, she's sending a sample off for testing. We're all just crossing our fingers that everything comes back clean. Yesterday, Dad was watching some documentary on TV about tumors, and he found her in her room crying. Mom is holding up okay, though—staying optimistic. I’m hoping for the best, too.
Honestly, if those people in New York were actually expecting an envelope, they should be embarrassed.

Back again:
My mom had her checkup at the hospital in Cleveland yesterday, and the gynecologist told her it’s a skin tumor. They scheduled her to go back and get it removed in a week. I finally managed to talk her into seeing a private specialist instead, because honestly, waiting around like this is just playing with our nerves.

Guys, help me out here;
Does anyone know a good private dermatologist in Seattle?
My mom was at the hospital seeing a specialist and the doctor told her she has skin cancer, then basically just ordered her to come back in a week to have it removed. Honestly, the doctor had zero bedside manner—it was a total disaster. I want to get my mom in to see someone privately just for a second opinion and some peace of mind, because right now the whole family is freaking out.

gentletiger46 said:Hey nela25 - first off, take a breath. Your GP really missed the mark by throwing around a cancer diagnosis so casually—you can't call it cancer without a solid cytology report. Obviously, any mole that's bleeding is super sketchy, but you guys did the right thing checking it out. If you can, try to talk your mom into seeing a specialist ASAP, even if it means going private, because with melanoma, every second counts. I don't know where you're located, but I know there are plenty of great private clinics in Washington, D.C. with top-tier equipment that can check suspicious spots and even remove them on the spot. I'll shoot you a DM with the contact info for the dermatologist my mom and husband used to get their moles removed.

Unfortunately, we aren't in D.C., but thanks anyway for the offer. And even if I were in D.C., it's not like she's being stubborn just to avoid paying for a private doctor. She actually made an appointment the day before yesterday and then just... didn't go. Honestly, if that GP were anything to worry about, she would've heard from me. 🤷

Grace Stewart6 said:Hey nela,

It was the exact same thing with my mom. The spot looks just like what you described. Her GP first gave her some cream, but when that didn't work, she sent her to a dermatologist. Luckily, we didn't have to wait forever here. The dermatologist suspected carcinoma and sent her to surgery to have it removed and sent for testing. The surgeon told my mom she wouldn't be scheduled for the procedure for another 2.5 months.
It’s enough to drive you crazy.
We ended up going to a private clinic and she had the surgery last week. She’s getting the stitches out in a week and a half, and we should have the results by then. I am terrified of what those results will say.
I'll definitely let you know the results and what happens next.
By the way, my mom was also totally against going to a private doctor. It was such a struggle to convince her. Now she doesn't regret it, since we'll have answers soon, whereas otherwise she would've been waiting until the end of May just for the surgery.
Keeping my fingers crossed that everything turns out okay, and I definitely recommend going private.

I don't know, I just called my mom and they told her to come in Tuesday and they'll remove it immediately. 😕 If they don't do it right away and she ends up having to wait, I told her I don't care, we're going to a private clinic.
She just told me that I'm worrying more than she is. Let us know the results, keeping everything crossed that it'll all be fine. 👍👍👍👍

sorry, my spelling is totally trashed today...

Hey everyone on this thread... I honestly don't even know where to start with this question because my search hasn't turned up anything useful. Basically, my mom has this spot on her back that keeps bleeding, scabbing over, and then doing the whole thing all over again. It's started spreading too, and when her primary care doctor saw it, she marked the referral as an emergency for dermatology and casually dropped the "C" word—told her it looks like cancer. Naturally, we’re all freaking out right now. 😢 I mean, how can someone just throw diagnoses around like that??? She isn't even a dermatologist. Of course Mom is terrified (even though she's trying her hardest to act cool about it over the phone), but I'm stuck far away from her and feel totally useless. I called her this morning trying to convince her to just go private, but she won't hear it. She basically told me to leave her alone and stop panicking. She actually went to the dermatologist yesterday, even though the referral said it was urgent, but they just sent her right back because they said she had to schedule an appointment. Honestly, if she had made a huge scene, they probably would've seen her immediately, but since she played by the rules, now we’re just stuck waiting until next Tuesday. 😢😢😢 😢 I don't even know what I'm really asking you guys, maybe just wondering if anyone has dealt with something similar? I've been losing my mind with worry since she told me yesterday.

Just stumbled upon this thread... I was actually in Russia back in '96, only 13 at the time. My parents happened to hear about the Fedorov clinic and decided to send me there to try and stop my vision from getting worse—that whole scleroplasty thing. My eye doctor told my mom straight up that she was sending her kid there at her own risk, basically saying she’d never dream of doing that to her own child. You can only imagine how much of a rough night that was for my parents. Even at 13, my prescription was already sitting at -4.75 and -5, and it just kept climbing. I ended up going to Saint Petersburg alone; there were plenty of Americans there, and you have a representative staying with you, but honestly, it was so long ago I don't even know if anything has changed since then. Fast forward to now—I just turned 25, and my prescription hasn't budged; it hasn't gotten better or worse. My parents always say it was the hardest but best decision they ever made. It's never even been noted in my official medical records that I had the surgery. Back then, the doctors told my folks I'd eventually need a C-section, and now that I'm pregnant, things are getting complicated. I went to see a private eye doctor because, first off, I don't trust anything my insurance-based ophthalmologist has said since 1996, and second, I'm not about to sit in a waiting room all day just to get checked out. Anyway, the private specialist told me I definitely need a C-section, but now my OBGYN at the hospital is demanding paperwork from my primary eye doctor because what the private one wrote (I paid $75 for two exams, by the way) isn't "official" enough for them...