VATER???

Nope, in this case it is not the German word for father.

When the technologist called me yesterday to discuss what would happen when Andy has his ur*dynamics study and his cystosc*pe done, she dropped this word as what Andy has been diagnosed with. I told he very quickly that she must be looking at the wrong child's file, because my son did not have that dx. He just has repaired hyp*spadias and related complications along with repaired an*l atresia and constipation issues.

WRONG..... Evidently he had been dxd with this last year, but no one had bothered to share that information with me, or what it meant for Andy.

I am still waiting for a doctor to explain this.

I did some reading on my own and it sounds like it is just a name for a bunch of different birth defects which may or may not be present. As far as 'I can tell from what I have read, he has the A and the R. With the additional possibility of needing to catheterize him every 4 hours looming ahead of us following these tests, I am definitely praying that this poor kid will not have to endure much more..... I want someone to explain why this is on his chart though! He does not have any of the other issues.

I just wish the doctors would not have assumed that I knew what he needed. I obviously do not know why he has these problems or how to solve them when I took him in for them to help me! I so hope that they tell me more SOON!! Not knowing what medical things I should be watching for with Andy is worrying me and I am feeling like a pretty lousy mom right now...

5 hours later .....

PS... Andy's doctor called me this am and told me not to worry any more. The VATER dx was just because of the 3 symptoms Andy has ( anal atresia at birth, hypospadias and mild urinary incontinence) and he seriously doubts that he will have others. They would have been much more obvious at birth and shortly after.

In other words, VATER is just a dx given to any child with more than one birth defect. It does not imply that he will have more to deal with or that I am going to be clueless about what to look for! I freaked out for no reason.

Whew!! I can easily cope with the rest and it has all been explained very clearly :-)

I keep wanting this parenting thing to have an instruction manual and need to just take it one step at a time. I love this boy so much and just need to sit back and enjoy him!