Kellan's Hospital Appointment

Kellan had a hospital appointment today with the Peadiatric consultant about his sacral dimple.

Kellan was referred for an ultrasound on his sacral dimple after his newborn check up back in November 2011. The dimple was quite deep so the consultant wanted to just make sure everything was ok. In the December Kellan had his ultrasound at which I was told everything was fine. I went away so happy after that appointment and stopped worrying over what was possibly wrong.

In April 2012 we received a letter from the hospital saying the results of the ultrasound had gotten lost in the system for a while and the consultant had only just gone over them and they had found an incident of spina bifida. They wanted to look in to it further with an MRI. The letter completely shocked us and left me worried at what an 'incident of spina bifida' was. We had an appointment for a couple of weeks after the letter arrived.

We attended the appointment where Kellan was weighed and measured and the consultant explained what the ultrasound had found. They could see a piece of vertebrae missing in the lower spine but because the ultrasound images weren't very clear they wanted to do an MRI to see if spinal fluid was escaping through the gap.

We were back at the hospital a month or so later for the MRI.  We went on to the day ward and waited for Kellan's sedative. He wasn't keen on the taste but was soon drifting off to sleep. We then made our way to the MRI room. I'd heard the machine was loud but wow loud is an understatement it was awful with ear plugs in I hate to think how loud it is without. Kellan was awake just as we were coming back to the ward and after a feed were allowed to head home. We were told the results would take 4-6 weeks to come back so we waited for an appointment to come by post.

Our next appointment was 6 weeks later to discuss what they'd found. The gap in Kellan's vertebrae was luckily just a gap and the spinal fluid was not poking through it which would have been a concern. So they arranged another follow up appointment 6 months later to see how Kellan developed in case anything came up with walking, moving around, bladder or bowel control. The consultant also sent the MRI scans to a consultant at Kings College Hospital for him to look over to get his opinion.

So today was talked about being the last visit to the consultant as Kellan has been normal at his other checks. They just wanted to make sure that his last few development milestones were as they should be and that I had no concerns over anything.

We still had no word from the consultant at Kings College Hospital and was told that was probably a good thing. I explained I had no concerns with Kellan and that he's a very active little boy who runs about, jumps down stairs and climbs everything and that his bladder and bowels seem normal to me. The consultant checked his reflexes, looked at his dimple, which has become more shallow, and checked his hips. She was very happy with him and commented that his ankles are extremely flexable and Kellan has now been discharged and declared normal!!

We came out from hospital today, although I knew he was fine, over the moon and celebrated by treating Kellan to a Happy Meal.