This is obviously fictional, and I’m no doctor, so I apologize if the facts aren’t 100% there. I kind of fudge some of the medical stuff to make the story happen the way I want it to. But it’s a different sort of concept that I am running with.
13 year old Kelli was in 8th grade. And all her life she had continued to have kidney infections. It was caused by urinary retention from her bladder not releasing all of her urine when she peed and the urine would go up into her kidneys causing infections. Since she was 6 she had had this issue. And it would become incredibly painful to urinate after she gained an infection.
Her mother would take her to specialists and they would drain her bladder and give her medication to beat the infections. The hope was that as she would grow, eventually her body would catch up and she wouldn’t retain urine in her bladder when she would pee.
As Kelli was finishing her 7th grade year in school she had began to wet the bed. Her mother would wash her sheets and always gave her plenty of sympathy throughout. They went to the doctor over this, and from communication with Kelli, they discovered that she was holding her urine in because it was becoming too painful to pee and she would wet the bed at night. She was given goodnites, medication, and would make certain to pee before bed, no matter the pain.
With a week left in school, they went to see a specialist because the pain wasn’t exactly getting better. Dr. Andrews met with them in his waiting room.
“Kelli, I’m sure this is painful and I’m sorry that you continue to deal with this. We have been hoping that as you get bigger that this will go away and you won’t have to deal with it any longer at all. But you are physically getting more and more mature and the problem is arguably getting worse. We basically have three routes we can explore” Dr. Andrews explains as Kelli and her mother Sarah listen.
“Option 1 is to continue to give you the medictation and hope you grow and fight off these infections. But the more times you have an infection in your kidney, the more likely we risk damage to your kidneys. We have been doing this method for about 7 years now and we have just had too many kidney infections for me to be entirely comfortable continuing this way”
“Option 2 is to give you a catheter for awhile to help keep you from having the urinary retention and to properly drain your bladder every time you urinate. This will keep urine from going back into your kidney. It is my hope that after doing this for awhile, your bladder will get used to draining itself completely when you do urinate and this could potentially stop urine from flowing back to your kidneys”
“Or option 3, which is two different types of surgeries. One surgery is fairly micro and you would go home that day. We put a splint in your Ureter to keep the urine from flowing back. The opening would be the size of a pin point and there is a fairly good chance this solves the problem. It would be an artificial splint and it should be very effective. The secondary surgical option is to go in and surgically repair this spot. This would be 100% effective, but I prefer to avoid surgery however we can.”
“So it sounds like option 1 is getting less and less effective and option 3 to do surgery would be a last resort, so what all does option 2 entail?” An inquisitive Sarah asks with Kelli sitting patiently.
“Well we would put a catheter in her bladder and it would empty her bladder for her completely. She wouldn’t have control over her bladder though, and we would need to do this for a couple of weeks to make certain her bladder doesn’t retain any urine in it. She would continue the medication to fight the infection and after a couple of weeks we would reassess and see how the infection is doing and see if we could take out the catheter. She would probably have to wear some sort of protection because she wouldn’t have any control over when she was urinating.”
To this Kelli winced and looked at her mother with a concerned look……protection? Like diapers?
“And you think this is a better route than surgery?” Sarah asked
“I always want to avoid surgery if I can”
“Okay, we’ll she just started summer break and we don’t have to be anywhere for awhile, so I guess that is a good choice. If this doesn’t fix it, then do you recommend surgery?”
“I think we would need to give it a good long look at that time. If that’s the case, then we’ll get a nurse in here to put the catheter in today and I’ll write up your script for the medication.”
“Thank you Doctor Andrews, we appreciate your help” Sarah responded and the doctor walked out the door.
Kelli looked at her mom. “What did he mean by protection mom?”
“I don’t really know, but I am guessing something like your Goodnites.”
Kelli wasn’t thrilled with the idea of wearing Goodnites all day every day and wetting them, but she was ready for it to not hurt when she peed.
A nurse came in with an item in a plastic bag it had tubes and different items in it.
“Alright Kelli, if you would hop up onto the table for me” as the nurse instructed Kelli to the nursing table with the thin sheet of paper on it. Kelli hoped up and the nurse instructed her to remove her jeans and underwear and to lay back.
She felt a pinch and pressure. It was uncomfortable but not painful. It took a few minutes and the nurse then held the end of the tube with her hand and grabbed something plastic from the counter that Kelli didn’t notice.
“You may feel the need to pee, and that’s okay.” As she then grabbed what Kelli now realized was a diaper as she opened up and fanned it out and slid it underneath Kelli’s bottom. She then pulled it from the back and over the front of her and taped the back to the front.
“You’ll want to get adult diapers like these and make certain you change them regularly. She won’t be able to tell when she has wet the diaper outside of it feeling heavier and you don’t want her to get a rash. We are making an appointment for three weeks for you to come back, is morning or afternoon better?” the nurse asked Sarah.
“Mornings are better than afternoons” She responded.
Kelli laying on her back just realized that she is wearing a diaper, and would have to wear diapers for the next three weeks at least. What a summer this is going to be she thought to herself. She wanted to cry, but not in front of this nurse. She could feel the diaper get wet, and there was nothing she could do to stop it.
