Can This Kidney be Saved?

The last 6-month check showed creatinine levels a bit higher.  Another test, after a month,  verified and showed a continued rise.  Once again I am asked to come in and visit with my Urologist. These meetings scare me.

Over the past couple years, my Creatinine levels had pretty much leveled out - high but steady - but on my last two checks they have started to inch up again. Nothing real serious, according to my urologist, but a sign that the tube that drains my left kidney (the one that has been swollen) into the neo-bladder may be closing up again with scar tissue where it is attached to the bladder.

So here I am with a brand new tube coming out of my back and draining into a brand new bag on my leg. I've had this tube before but I haven't had the bag - so that's new. The surgery was easy. I was awake and able to move my head to look around, able to move my arms to get more comfortable, and talking to the nurses and anesthesiologist through the whole thing and I even still remember a little of it.  But there was no pain.

They wanted me to hang around for a couple hours after it was over to make sure I was functioning again. I had a hearty meal and drank a lot of water, since I hadn't eaten in nearly a day or drank anything for about 8 hours. The radiologist, who put the tube in, told my wife that everything went fine. He was a little concerned that the urine was so thick and he took a sample to be analyzed by the lab.

It's been about 12 hours since the surgery and I just biked in to this coffee shop and from here I'll go to work (I'm working again).  I feel fine now but I did wake up in the night with some pain and I was a little nauseous. I took an Advil and lay back down - both of which helped.

There hasn't been much flow into that bag and it's still quite red. So it crosses my mind that maybe the urologist is less optimistic than I had thought. Maybe the real purpose of this nephrostomy is to conclusively prove, to both him and to me, that this kidney has stopped working and needs to come out.

We'll see.  The plan is to keep the tube in for a couple weeks.