My friend called again to tell me he is still contending with tubes, nephrostomy bags, stents, fevers, antibiotics, office procedures, and hospital stays while the doctors scramble to solve his declining kidney function. You will recall that we met when he was in the hospital recovering from this same surgery while I was recovering from mine. A few weeks ago he went in for follow up tests and his creatinine levels had spiked (much more than mine). [See 'Are You Kidney-ing Me?' blog entry]
Now that I have learned that my levels have started to go up - after being steady for 2 years - I am a little scared. I've looked around the Internet for information on kidney problems following Neo-Bladder and found a study which concluded that a rise in creatinine levels is normal after this surgery. [click here to view article] It also found an increase in occurrence of hydronephrosis (ie. problems with the kidneys).
"A relatively large number of patients developed hydronephrosis. Five [out of 31 patients studied ] were related to stricture of the distal ureter and another with suspected upper tract recurrence. Our stricture rate was 17.9%; most authors report a lower stricture rate between 1% to 8.5%..."This study only followed 31 patients over one year period after surgery. It sites a lack of long-term data. I'll keep looking ...
I've already been treated for this in my left kidney and now I'm afraid I will need the same for my right. Well, we'll just have to wait and see.
Meanwhile, we're getting a great, soaking, two-day rain here in Madison, Wis. We'd have given a lot for one of these this past summer. This will help recover our reserves for next year's growing season.
2 comments:
Yesterday...
So now it's my turn, I'm called from the waiting room "MR MACHACEK, THE DOCTOR WILL SEE YOU NOW" As I enter the examining room to be prepped I notice this young new female assistant straight from college, oh about 22 or 23 years old, a blonde shy looking pretty girl.
My thoughts are, "oh no, not this again! (referring to the time another new young gal was picked to prep me) But as I entered the room there stood Mrs Robowski, a lady in her 60's, large bone, a bit over weight, 50's hair style dyed red. She greets me with "you know the drill Mr Machacek" I shook my head as to say "yes I do" realizing how much I hated this procedure!
I then removed my jeans and underwear leaving my socks and sweat shirt on and climbed atop the examining table. At that point she handed me a paper sheet with a hole cut out in the middle that would expose my thingy. Next Mrs Robowski attired with plastic gloves lifts my thingy with her left hand and starts to spray a cold brownlike iodine scented solution with her right hand (oh, its so very cold!)
I'm straining every muscle from my hips down while trying to fight the feeling of blowing snow on my boys, finally she finishes and proceeds to the last step of preparation. Mrs Robowski then opens a medical drawer and pulls out a large plastic syringe (about the size of a banana) she then fills it with a gooey, clear numbing gel and inserts it in my thingy, Ouch! Then a plastic clamp atop, to stop it from oozing out!
Dr Roach then enters the room, "Hello Michael, how are you doing?" I lay starring up at him, my thingy exposed with a clothes pin looking clamp attached, excess gel covering my boys, brown disinfectant all over my upper thighs and thingy, an iodine aroma penetrating the air and reply "Couldn't be any better, how about those Packers?" (he is a packer fan, can't take the chance of pissing him off by talking about my bears in this position!)
He then says "Are you ready"? I reluctantly say "Yes Doctor Roach" he dresses his hands with surgical gloves, removes the clamp, He then utters the warning alert, "Going In!" He picks up my thingy with his left hand and inserts a long 22" cigar size tube into my thingy and pushes it toward my bladder (entry begins, seems like about 10 feet! but actually about 12 to 15 inches or so) at the end of this tube is a light and camera.
After about 5 or 6 minutes (seems like hours) his periscope looking devise is ready for departure and he says, "take a deep breath" and not fast enough for me, removes the scud like missile (feels like one anyway) And then comes the most beautiful sounding words I have been looking forward to hearing, "Michael, you have a very boring looking bladder" and smiles! You see, this visit makes me cancer free for more then 2 1/2 years as of yesterday! After being diagnosed with stag 4 bladder cancer and told I have 3 to 6 months, a boring bladder is the very best Thanks Giving Gift I could receive!
Happy Thanks Giving to all who receive this blogg, I joked about the procedure adding in some humor but it was as real as it read! May God Bless you and keep you as healthy as I am now!
I pray to our Lord that you have a spouse as mine, a family as mine, and friends as mine, have a great holiday season....
J Michael Machacek
That's a great story with a GREAT ending. I love hearing these.
Happy Thanksgiving to you.
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