Praise God! Today was a good day that started out a little on the wobbly side. DH has been suffering from some serious 'flank' pain for the last couple of weeks. Our natural assumption was that his old cyst-filled kidneys were the culprit. He had a kidney transplant on Thanksgiving Day in 2004 due to Polycystic Kidney Disease which is a genetic disease that causes cysts to fill and eventually overcome the kidneys, i.e., renal failure. The new kidney has always been tip-top, but the old ones have been basically anonymous and silent since the transplant - out of sight, out of mind until recently.
We jumped to the conclusion that some of the multitude of cysts had become huge and that the kidney itself had overgrown the space allotted to it, causing the pain. I must admit that I can be a tad reactive in such situations, always wanting to fix it, to do something, trying to be rational and clear. DH on the other hand is cool and non-reactive. A disgusting trait for which I'm very thankful. Yesterday he finally heard back from his local nephrologist (rather than the transplant doctors that I wanted him to call) and was told to get an ultrasound and come in to see the PA today. Last night I googled images of kidney cysts along with treatment for the resulting pain. OMG, it was a horror show!!
This is where the praise comes in. His urinalysis was normal - no blood, no infection. (When infected cysts rupture, there's a risk of peritonitis.) The ultrasound showed that his old left kidney is only 12 cm long which is not real large (18-20 cm is large). (Why do they say 'sontameters' and not 'sentameters'???) Plus his pain is located lower than true kidney pain, being just above his waist way to the left. The PA ruled out the native kidney being the problem. Examining him, she thought it was "soft tissue" like muscle strain and asked if he had fallen or bumped hard into something recently. DH remembered diving out of bed one night several weeks back. He does that in his dreams, so we bought a bed rail, fearing he would go bunker-diving one night and break something. Now he just 'rattles his cage' occasionally. Well, it may be that between the fall and squirming to get out of bed in the morning without dropping the rail, he may have pulled something. And each morning he aggravates it. So probably tomorrow he will have a couple of x-rays of his lower back and start dropping the bed rail. Hopefully, it will get better. He's been told in the past he has arthritis in his lower back (don't remember which vertebrae) and it's inoperable. We're just happy it's not his old kidneys and he won't need any of those surgeries I was reading about - and also see some hope that he won't have to continue on the oxycodone for long. I asked her if there were other choices besides oxycodone. She said, "Not if you want a healthy kidney."
All this came on a day when the office was short staffed and the boss was on vacation, and every possible unexpected event that could come up did come up. My capable co-worker took the brunt of it. I sure hope she went to bed early and is sleeping soundly. She deserves it! Both of us had to leave early (she for business and me to accompany DH to the doctor), so the office was locked up before normal closing time.
And finally, this evening I made 5 quarts of Ellie's food. (Ellie is a Brittany dog.) Oh, she loves it!!! She knows I'm cooking her food, and she hovers around me - nicely. Tonight I tasted it. Pretty yummy though bland. It contains 2 lbs of ground turkey, about 1-1/3 lbs chicken livers, about 3 cups brown rice, a bag of turnip greens (they didn't have kale today), almost 2 lbs of carrots & 2 lbs of green beans - boiled in 2 pots, put through the food processor and made into a wet (not drippy) mush. Good stuff!
And I'm kinda tired. No visiting the roses this evening so no photos to share. Only this photo of the product of my labor. Probably DH wishes I cooked so eagerly for him.
We jumped to the conclusion that some of the multitude of cysts had become huge and that the kidney itself had overgrown the space allotted to it, causing the pain. I must admit that I can be a tad reactive in such situations, always wanting to fix it, to do something, trying to be rational and clear. DH on the other hand is cool and non-reactive. A disgusting trait for which I'm very thankful. Yesterday he finally heard back from his local nephrologist (rather than the transplant doctors that I wanted him to call) and was told to get an ultrasound and come in to see the PA today. Last night I googled images of kidney cysts along with treatment for the resulting pain. OMG, it was a horror show!!
This is where the praise comes in. His urinalysis was normal - no blood, no infection. (When infected cysts rupture, there's a risk of peritonitis.) The ultrasound showed that his old left kidney is only 12 cm long which is not real large (18-20 cm is large). (Why do they say 'sontameters' and not 'sentameters'???) Plus his pain is located lower than true kidney pain, being just above his waist way to the left. The PA ruled out the native kidney being the problem. Examining him, she thought it was "soft tissue" like muscle strain and asked if he had fallen or bumped hard into something recently. DH remembered diving out of bed one night several weeks back. He does that in his dreams, so we bought a bed rail, fearing he would go bunker-diving one night and break something. Now he just 'rattles his cage' occasionally. Well, it may be that between the fall and squirming to get out of bed in the morning without dropping the rail, he may have pulled something. And each morning he aggravates it. So probably tomorrow he will have a couple of x-rays of his lower back and start dropping the bed rail. Hopefully, it will get better. He's been told in the past he has arthritis in his lower back (don't remember which vertebrae) and it's inoperable. We're just happy it's not his old kidneys and he won't need any of those surgeries I was reading about - and also see some hope that he won't have to continue on the oxycodone for long. I asked her if there were other choices besides oxycodone. She said, "Not if you want a healthy kidney."
All this came on a day when the office was short staffed and the boss was on vacation, and every possible unexpected event that could come up did come up. My capable co-worker took the brunt of it. I sure hope she went to bed early and is sleeping soundly. She deserves it! Both of us had to leave early (she for business and me to accompany DH to the doctor), so the office was locked up before normal closing time.
And finally, this evening I made 5 quarts of Ellie's food. (Ellie is a Brittany dog.) Oh, she loves it!!! She knows I'm cooking her food, and she hovers around me - nicely. Tonight I tasted it. Pretty yummy though bland. It contains 2 lbs of ground turkey, about 1-1/3 lbs chicken livers, about 3 cups brown rice, a bag of turnip greens (they didn't have kale today), almost 2 lbs of carrots & 2 lbs of green beans - boiled in 2 pots, put through the food processor and made into a wet (not drippy) mush. Good stuff!
And I'm kinda tired. No visiting the roses this evening so no photos to share. Only this photo of the product of my labor. Probably DH wishes I cooked so eagerly for him.
I'm headed for bed.
I wish you, a better day tomorrow !!! My thougts are with you, Sherry !!!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Dani. We’re doing great. Today wasn’t as hectic at work. Thanks so much for thinking of of us.
ReplyDeleteSo glad the news was not so dire after all your worries. Life can sometimes be too exciting.
ReplyDeleteYou are a very good dog momma. That's a lot of work!