Hydronephrosis

[mowgelijeffs]

Hi there it's a really long story and I want to cut it as short as possible.
I had my first baby a son in May 2016. We was born by c section under a general anaesthetic. I couldn't have a spinal or an epidural because I had just had the pseudomonas infection in my kidney.
When I was pregnant at 22 weeks I was suddenly struck down by major flank pain .. Think falling to the floor.. Couldn't walk.. Ambulance..
Anyway. I had a nephrostomy (external catheter into kidney direct) inserted at 23 weeks pregnant.
I had a major case of hydronephrosis and my left kidney wouldn't drain by itself.
The nephrostomy itself nearly killed me with the terrible infections I caught.
The whole experience was really painful and really humiliating. I was constantly in hospital.
I had the nephrostomy taken out because when they went to replace it (they have to do this to stop it growing into the kidney) they realise I had no "physical obstruction"
A few days later I was in pain again and had gone into labour. My son was born at 35 weeks.
I never dilated but was too exhausted to have a natural labour.
My son went to special care for 4 days then we took him home.
I had to take tramadol and codeine for the pain for nearly 4 months and I was very addicted to them afterwards.
I went cold turkey and the withdrawal was horrendous. My husband said he has never even seen the heroin addicts he works with withdraw like I did.
Now.. We said we would never have another baby. But I am already so broody. I want more.
My husband said he cannot take it, what happened again. So no more babies.
I'm keen to know if this has happened to anyone else and if so what was their subsequent pregnancy like?

either way I think il cope being pregnant. It will give me closure: I am not good at being pregnant and it happens again but at least I know and my son gets a sibling OR it's an easy experience and I can box away the trauma of the last pregnancy knowing it was a one off experience for me.

Thank you for reading

Now everyone is home from work I really hope someone sees this and has an experience!

So sorry you went through that. I had hydronephrosis when I was pregnant too, no physical obstruction that they could find so they reasoned that it was the baby in my womb pressing against my urinary tube to stop it emptying properly. I was in hospital for three weeks with it but it didn't get better with any of the treatments (j-stent, kidney catheter) but it went away by itself, I guess as baby shifted position. Also had appendicitis at the time so hard to pinpoint what was caused by the hydronephrosis and what by my appendix. "Luckily" the tramadol made me too sick to take it so I didn't get addicted.

I definitely understand your dilemma, its the same for me, I want to have another child but I'm scared to go through pregnancy again in case I get it again as it really was the worst pain I've ever been through.

Natsku thanks so much for your reply. The pain is like nothing else isn't it. I had to have all the anti emetics in order to keep the tramadol down..
Did you get your Nephrostomy removed then after a short period of time and the hydronephrosis clear up?

Yeah they took it out after a couple of days because it was bothering me so much. They were then going to discharge me when I had a horrendous attack of pain which most likely was my appendix (took them half a week more to figure that out though ) The hydronephrosis cleared up a couple of weeks after I left the hospital. I'm still prone to pain in my right kidney area, though I've never had it scanned since after giving birth to check if there's any issues with it.

I had this earlier on in this pregnancy, I'm 2 days overdue now, I had two separate episodes in the summer. Thankfully it hasn't occurred again, they thought it was the baby pressing on my ureter as a previous poster has also said. I had a follow up appointment and a nephrostomy was mentioned as a method of relieving it if it was to happen again. Thankfully it hasn't.

I have had two previous pregnancies where this didn't happen so I'm inclined to say they are all different, however it may be something you should discuss with a doctor who knows more x

sj that is so so uplifting.
I am really hoping for a pregnancy unaffected by it.
And if I do have hydronephrosis again I'll try and skip the nephrostomy