Baby has ONE kidney. Do you know anyone born like that?

amother

Sun, Oct 30 2011, 7:30 pm

In utero they where concerned with the development of one on the baby's kidney. It was enlarged with a couple of cysts. When dc was born, that kidney turned out to be a multicystic dysplastic kidney. That kidney isn't functioning at all, but bh the other one is compensating. The nephrologist at birth said that the bad kidney looks like it is shrinking, and will eventually be reabsorbed by the body. The pediatrician says that if not for the ultrasounds there is no way we would have ever even known. We decided not to tell anyone because of todays crazy shidduch scene. People hear something and remember years later, and then they blow things out of porportion.

Do you know anyone else with a similar story? Did the good kidney ever cause trouble later on in life?

morah

Sun, Oct 30 2011, 7:38 pm

Both my mother and my grandfather were born with one kidney (though apparently it is totally not hereditary, just a freak occurrence). No problem whatsoever. You only need one and millions of people live with just one- whether they were born that way, lost one to disease, or donated one. The only problem is that if anything ch'v happens to that one kidney, you don't have a back-up. Other than that, you can live a perfectly healthy, normal life. Forget shidduchim- people shouldn't know because that's private information that only your child can decide to share.

amother

Sun, Oct 30 2011, 8:07 pm

Um, to the 2nd poster: if your grandfather and your mother (his daughter) both were born with 1 kidney then it IS familial. Which means that geneticists are not certain why it runs in certain families, but for some reason, it does.

Re shidduchim: I agree that the info is private, but for your child's sake, especially if a girl, make sure she knows about it so that when she talks to drs later in life, she knows about her own condition, especially concerning pregnancy. Also, you might want to steer very clear of shidduchim with other families with any known kidney problems. Your grandkids don't need a double-dose of medical issues.

labyrinthine

Sun, Oct 30 2011, 9:24 pm

My neighbor has an adorable 1 yr old daughter born with only 1 kidney. They're keeping it a secret and as far as I was told, it will not effect her later in life unless she will want to donate a kidney. Very Happy

naomi2

Sun, Oct 30 2011, 9:50 pm

iyh everything will go smoothly, sounds like from the other posters who know about missing kidneys, that your baby should look forward to a completely normal and healthy life. may you see much nachas from this baby!

JollyMommy

Sun, Oct 30 2011, 10:02 pm

Yup 2 people:

1. my grandfather aH who lived til a nice old age and died unrelated to kidney
2. a friend who has 1 kidney and 2 uteruses (uteri?) and is doing quite wll B"H, has children etc..

sarlal

Sun, Oct 30 2011, 10:17 pm

I am not passing this off as medical advice, but:
iyH the "good" kidney will grow and compensate. Sometimes the multicystic dysplastic kidney needs to be surgically removed, but other times it can shrink to the size of an olive and may not need to be removed.
you should have much nachas from dc and be happy that kh bH HaShem created man with 2 kidneys Smile

one kidney is just fine.

shanie5

Sun, Oct 30 2011, 10:24 pm

My father has only 1 kidney-but thats because he donated the other to his brother. IIRC, a person needs only 1 kidney functioning at 1/2 capacity to live a normal life. As for having only one if problems occur, usually if one kidney goes bad, the other will too.

Toriadore

Sun, Oct 30 2011, 11:11 pm

BH, we only need one kidney!

My first baby had two multicystic kidneys.

(He didn't survive, but I gave birth to 4 healthy babies very quickly within the following 5 years)

youngbubby

Mon, Oct 31 2011, 12:38 am

my father passed away at the age of 82...it wasent from anyhing to do with his kidney. WHEN HE WAS IN THE ARMY MANY YEaRS AGO HE WENT TO THE DR THERE FOR SOMETHING AND THEY THEN FOUND OUT HE ONLY HAD ONE KIDNEY. it never affected him at all. HE did have kidney proiblems as he got older but the same thing would have happened if he had two kidneys. So dont worry....it seems that this is not as unique as we think.

ChossidMom

Mon, Oct 31 2011, 1:30 am

My dad a"h had only one kidney as one had to be removed at age 24. He lived a healthy life and died at age 82. His kidney did stop functioning at about age 80 and he needed to go on dialysis. This may not have happened if he hadn't have had a serious head injury that required a few surgeries (I suspect). All in all, he had quite a full and healthy life.

amother

Mon, Oct 31 2011, 5:51 am

Thank you for the reassurance. My little brain knows all that you wrote, but it feels better to hear personal experiences.

@Toriadore
I thought that if the unborn baby develops two then you misscarry.

@saral
They say that the good kidney already compensated before birth. It is larger. I was told about a possible need for surgery. Since it is already shrinking, they don't think surgery will be needed at all. We are following up on that.

amother

Mon, Oct 31 2011, 5:52 am

My husband lived with one kidney for about 30 years after one was removed in childhood. He lost the other one due to health problems not originating in the kidney.
One kidney is enough to sustain a person well for iyh a long life. Kidney donors do fine with one.
Beezrat hashem your baby should be healthy and well ad meah veesrim.

amother

Wed, Jan 23 2013, 10:08 pm

I know this is an old thread, but any more advice/support? My DC may need to have one of his kidneys removed as it is not functioning. OP-how is your DC doing? Did you need to remove the kidney? Where are you located/which doc did u use?

amother

Wed, Jan 23 2013, 10:50 pm

I think that is amazing. As the wife of someone who donated a kidney, I bet that OP baby's one kidney spiritually traveled to above amother's baby so each baby could have at least one healthy kidney, and somehow they saved each other's lives (or other babies' lives).

amother

Wed, Jan 23 2013, 10:54 pm

I'm not sure if it's the same thing. My dc was born with a multicystic dysplastic kidney. Basically it's a cluster of cysts instead of a kidney. Before dc was even 6 months old, it had been reabsorbed into dc's body & is left with one kidney. They said because this is something that happened in utero, the other kidney is somewhat larger, which is a good thing. If not for the sono, we would have never been the wiser. Dc is doing perfectly fine. We saw the nephrologist in the local hospital. They ran blood work as a baseline, and said to check in once a year or so to follow up.

finallyamommy

Wed, Jan 23 2013, 11:16 pm

When my husband told a friend of ours that he was going to donate a kidney, she told him that she was born with only one kidney and has done fine. She's in her 70s, a Holocaust survivor, and very very healthy. And my husband, six months post-donation, is fine too. :-)

DrMom

Thu, Jan 24 2013, 12:12 am

Yes, I know someone with one kidney. He didn't find out about it until he was ~40 years old. He told me that it occurs is ~1 out of every 750 men.

Karnash

Thu, Jan 24 2013, 1:08 am

My mother, a holocaust survivor, has only one kidney - and only found out when she was 75. She is now 85 - (ad 120) and it hasn't affected her life in any way.