I tend to keep things to myself until I have more information when things are going on in our lives.
This has been true all through our journey with Evan.
We've had some medical concerns for Kayla over the last couple of months. At first it seemed very innocuous, she just drank a lot. All the time. She got mad if she didn't have a drink.
But I started tracking her fluid intake, and the numbers were alarming. She took in 100 ounces yesterday, and that's pretty typical for her - water, a little juice and milk.
To give you an idea, the recommended water intake for an adult woman is around 72 ounces.
I expressed my concern to her pediatrician and she referred us to a nephrologist (kidney doctor). It takes time to see a specialist, and then time to get test results back for both blood and urine samples.
The doctors are testing her for diabetes insipidus (totally different from diabetes 1 & 2 and more rare) since her glucose tested fine. Diabetes insipidus is caused by either not producing enough of an anti-diuretic hormone, or her kidneys not processing the hormone, causing her to urinate excessively. In order to prevent dehydration, she drinks more.
The tests came back and the nephrologist feels from the results that the problem may lie with her pituitary gland (where the anti-diuretic hormone is produced), and has ordered an MRI to be done on September 30th.
She will need to be sedated during the MRI.
Diabetes insipidus can be a symptom of other issues, which can be determined by the MRI.
Until that is done, we have no other information. Kayla is happy, and otherwise healthy, so in the meantime, we're giving her as much to drink as she wants, having a drink available to her 24/7.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diabetes_insipidus
I've had some time to process this information while we were were waiting.
It's hard to think that something could be medically wrong with one child and after all that we went through with Evan.
Though a diagnosis of diabetes insipidus is not devastating, the possible causes has me on edge, and fills me with anxiety. Waiting for answers is hard, and the possibility of getting no sure answer is high.
I can't help but feel, though, that all my experience with Evan has prepared me for handling this knew unknown with Kayla.
