How Does It Feel?

Like A Rolling Stone...

It looks like we are having a week of medical posts. Although that is my life so I guess it is the theme of my blog. I went to the urologist on Tuesday to produce the requisite urine sample for him to send off so that it could once again come back with the same report we have received the other five times.

I had already decided that I was pulling out the big guns. Before we could get far into the conversation I "delicately hinted" that perhaps it was time to involve Infectious Disease. Praise the Lord! The doctor agreed! Although maybe he was looking for an excuse to get rid of me...

As of today I am in the process of getting my ID doctors involved. They saved my life once, certainly they can fix a measly little uber hateful UTI.

Since I won the ID doctor thing so easily I should have known more would come. My urologist asked me if I had ever had a scan done on my kidneys. I responded in the negative and my husband agreed. Certainly I would have remembered that, right?

Not so much. The doctor pulled up my records from when I had been in the hospital last year for my sepsis. He clicked and he clacked and he had his "Eureka!" moment. Apparently while I was fast "asleep" and on the ventilator the doctors did indeed scan my kidneys with a CT. I had been in kidney failure, so this kind of made sense. Dave said he knew nothing about it. The results of the CT showed that I had a 1.2 cm kidney stone in my right kidney.

Huh? What? Don't you think they should have mentioned this at some point????

To put this in perspective I have done a little research. Anything above .5 mm is considered as definitely needing removal. Mine is more than twice that size! Also, that scan was over a year ago, it's possible mine has grown even more.

The urologist was now on a role. He further went on to say that a stone in my Kidney could be harboring the bacteria that is giving me the UTI's. It is possible that the antibiotics I have been on have killed the bacteria in my bladder, but were not powerful enough to kill it off the stone up in my Kidney. So, once I stopped the antibiotic the stone immediately reseeded my bladder with bacteria, and there I was infected again.

Now, at this point in time this is just a theory. After the urologist, I went and had a new CT done, along with an x-ray (still waiting for results). But I am getting the feeling that the sucker is going to need to go. If it ever travels and blocks my ureter, I am screwed. Plus, my Kidney's, although healthy, are delicate these days. A stone does not help.

Again, I have had another first. I am losing my virginity a lot these days! I now have had my first Kidney stone, and it's a nice large one. Yippee for me. (please note sarcasm)

Now there will be more appts. with the urologist to figure out the stone situation, and appts. with the ID to figure out the infection decision. If they decide they are related then I will either be having something snaked up into my Kidney to smash the stone and remove it, or some kind of treatment that uses waves through your skin to destroy it (not sure how that one works).

Let's think back to my anger/behavior post. I have a right to feel pissed, sad, pissed some more, frustrated, and ready to Gallagher the produce department of my grocery store.  But, I will not. Instead I will continue to drink water like there is no tomorrow, silently scream every time I pee, and put my head on my desk when I try to figure out how to schedule all the doctor appointments without making me pass out due to total exhaustion.

On the bright side, we all got vaccinated for FLU today. Trust me, if you have not been vaccinated, GO GET YOUR SHOT! You do NOT want to be the one without a shot if the next pandemic occurs. Not that the shot will necessarily protect against that, but at least it gives you a fighting chance. :-)

To close off this particularly boringish blog, I am sorry, but it is kind of boring tonight. I will conclude with this pithy statement:

Hmmm...never mind, I actually don't have one! Best wishes to you all my chicos and chicas!

Your blogger, Diane.