Too easy.

Too Easy

My friend calls them 'piss bags'.

Right after my surgery to replace my cancerous bladder with a neo-bladder, I had two of them and  when he would see me, he would say; "How are your piss bags?" I'd tell him (truthfully) that they were a pain in the butt.  They keep filling up and I have to keep emptying them - which is more repulsive than it should probably be.  But they are also heavy and uncomfortable as they fill up. They are hard to hide - if you're self-conscious. So I was very happy to be rid of them.

I have a 'piss bag' once again with this nephrostomy. The good part is that for the past 5 days - since it's installation - I really haven't had much to do.  The bag doesn't get heavy or make a bulge. It doesn't need emptying because it doesn't fill up.  So I just fold it up, pin it to my underwear and forget it. Every day I empty a couple tablespoons of fluid but that's about all.

But, of course, I know that this is also the bad part. This represents the total output of my left Kidney and should be measured in cups and not tablespoons (if I were measuring things). This concerned me right away and the day after the surgery I called my urologist. He said it sometimes takes a day or so for the kidney to recover and start producing again and I should call if it doesn't start in another day.

The next day was a Saturday so I talked to the doctor on call who recommended I go to the ER and have an x-ray to see if the tube had moved out of place in the kidney. Four hours later the radiologist ( same guy) injected some dye and said everything was still perfectly positioned.

He had tested the urine when he first placed the tube because it was thicker than it should be.  He said that the lab came back positive for infection. He said that he's seen this before when a kidney is having troubles (my words). He recommended that I call my urologist on Monday and see about some antibiotic.

Monday, my urologist called me and put me on a week-long course of antibiotics. I hate taking these things but we're fighting to save a kidney here so ...

I've been looking up kidney friendly diets. Hmm.