Miana

A Mayo Clinic specialist helped Amy get answers about a condition that’s affected her young daughter for years, but mother and daughter never had to leave Santa Fe — or the care of the pediatric provider they adore.

Amy’s daughter, Miana, is a happy, active 5-year-old who loves to sing and dance. For more than two years, Miana has lived with a condition most other children her age don’t have to deal with: recurrent urinary tract infections (UTIs).

“Miana has missed a lot of school because of the infections,” Amy says. “She’ll have no symptoms for a period of time, and then, suddenly, she’ll have a lot of pain. It’s a little scary for her.”

When symptoms are, Amy takes Miana to see Crystal Romero, PNP, pediatric nurse practitioner at Arroyo Chamiso Pediatrics.

“Crystal has been amazing at managing Miana’s symptoms,” Amy says. “Miana just loves her.”

Amy and Crystal wanted to do more than react to Miana’s symptoms. Imaging tests were unable to pinpoint the cause of the UTIs. In addition, there was a persistent finding of hematuria and proteinuria (blood and protein in Miana’s urine) not related to the UTIs and a family history of kidney disease. Amy and Crystal knew they needed to keep pursuing a diagnosis to give Miana better quality of life. They needed help.

Answers From Afar

In mid-May, Amy and Crystal decided to take Miana’s case to a specialist at the world-renowned Mayo Clinic with an electronic consultation (eConsult), a service available to patients (through their providers) as part of the Mayo Clinic Care Network. Using CHRISTUS St. Vincent’s electronic medical record, Crystal requested help to speci cally address the nding of hematuria and proteinuria.

Three days later, she had a response from a Mayo Clinic pediatric nephrologist.

“The eConsult was great,” Crystal says. “The pediatric nephrologist did an excellent job recapping Miana’s history and explaining how we could rule out certain conditions, based on the tests she’d already had. The physician recommended an ultrasound of the kidneys and more blood work and urine studies.”

Crystal sent the new test results to the Mayo Clinic specialist. They were normal, but the physician suggested a possible cause of Miana’s symptoms, based on her family history: a rare kidney disease called immunoglobulin A nephropathy. Later this year, Amy will take Miana to see a pediatric nephrologist at a children’s hospital in Albuquerque to explore that potential diagnosis further.

“The eConsult gave us a sense of direction,” Amy says. “Mayo Clinic ruled out a lot of very scary things, which gave me peace of mind.”

Amy, whose daughter, Miana, recently benefited from an eConsult with a Mayo Clinic physician